On Tower Hill Memorial, London is the name of Fireman and Trimmer William Halliday,  serving on S.S. Radhurst (London) with the Merchant Navy who died  21/02/1943.

William Halliday was born on the 4th July 1913, at South Shields, the eldest son of four children of John Halliday, [born 8th October 1880, died 1951],  and his wife, Rebecca May Halliday nee Dodds, born Sunderland, 14th April 1895, died 1969. They were married in 1918 at South Shields.

The other children were:-

• Albert Halliday, born 21st May 1924, died 21st February 1943.
• Joseph Harbottle Halliday, born 28th April 1921, died 29th November 1943.
• John Halliday born 3rd January 1918, who was born paralysed and incapacitated.

William was residing at 33 Reed Street, South Shields, with his brothers Joseph and John, in 1921. The father was employed at St Hilda’s Colliery, at South Shields as a Miner Hewer for Harton Coal Company.

By 1939 the family had moved to 85 Broughton Street, South Shields. The father however was residing at 38 Catherine Street, South Shields. William joined the Merchant Navy in 1930, he was 6 feet 1 inch, grey eyes with fair hair and a fair complexion. He was   a Fireman. His first voyage was with the Selvistan, ship number 148070 in 1930.

Completed in June 1910 as Austro-Hungarian Nereide for T. Cossovich, Trieste. 1924 transferred to Yugoslavia and renamed Sava for Brodarsko Akcionarsko Drustvo Oceania, Susak. 1941 seized by Britain and renamed Radhurst by the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT).

On the 19th July 1942, the Radhurst rammed in thick fog the Norwegian steam merchant Havørn (Master Engel Hansen Holme) just off Prairie Light in St. Lawrence in 47°23N/70°27W. The Norwegian ship of 1478 tons was struck on the port side forward of the engine room and sank after the crew had abandoned ship and rowed to shore.

At 05.08 hours on the 20th February 1943 the unescorted Radhurst (Master Charles Faulkner Linton), a straggler from convoy ONS-165, was hit by one of two fired torpedoes from the German U Boat U-525, commanded by Korvettenkapitan Hans-Joachim Drewitz, about 500 miles north-northwest of St. John’s, Newfoundland. The torpedo struck amidships and caused the ship to sink within three minutes. The master, 37 crew members and four gunners were lost.

William Halliday was presumed drowned along with his younger brother.

Sources: British Newspaper Archive; U Boat net

William Halliday is remembered at Westoe in W101.08 page 36 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.