On Tower Hill Memorial is the name of Pilot 1st Class William Hopper Tinmouth, serving on Pilot Cutter Protector (South Shields) with the Lighthouse and Pilotage Authorities who died 31/12/1916.
The son of the late Thomas Young Tinmouth and Sarah M. Tinmouth, of South Shields and the husband of Mary C. Tinmouth, of 152, Fort Street, South Shields.
In Harton Cemetery is a family headstone which reads:
In loving memory of:
Sallie
the beloved wife of Stanley White
and dearly loved daughter of
Mary C. and the late William H. Tinmouth
died December 23rd 1933, aged 32 years.
Also William H. Tyne Pilot
the dearly beloved husband of
Mary C. Tinmouth
who was lost through the foundering
of the Pilot Cutter Protector
on December 31st 1916, aged 41 years.
Also Mary C. Tinmouth
wife of the above
died May 14th 1944, aged 64 years.
Rev. Youngson has submitted the following:-
William Hopper Tinmouth
Lighthouse & Pilotage Authorities
Pilot 1st Class Pilot Cutter Protector of South Shields
The son of Thomas Young Tinmouth (1839-1899) and Sarah Tinmouth (1845-1901) of South Shields born in 1875. A Pilot, he was Initiated on the 7th March 1911; Passed 6th June 1911 and Raised on the 19th September 1911 into 1970 Hadrian Lodge meeting at South Shields. He was the husband of Mary Chambers Tinmouth nee Elliot of 152 Fort Street, South Shields. He was the father of Sarah Mackay born 1902 and William born 1906. He drowned on the 31st December 1916 aged 41 when the Tyne Cutter Protector was blown up in the North Sea.
On New Year’s Eve, 31st December 1916, the Tyne pilot cutter Protector was destroyed by a German mine at the mouth of the River Tyne, killing all 19 men on board. The 200-ton steamer was serving the port of Tyne, guiding vessels through hazardous, mined waters during WWI. The loss was a devastating blow to the tight-knit Tyneside maritime community, leaving 33 children fatherless.
The Protector was waiting to transfer pilots to ships entering the Tyne when it hit a mine, likely laid by German submarine UC-31, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto von Schrader.
All 19 men on board perished, including 10 pilots, four pilot assistants, and five crew members.
The crew was mostly from North and South Shields. Victims included 70-year-old pilot Robert Phillips and his grandson Ralph Phillips, representing the interlinked nature of the families involved. The youngest was 16-year-old cabin boy Benjamin Rumney.
Aftermath: The explosion was so severe that only one body, that of Robert Phillips, was ever recovered, found in March 1917.
“There was a noise as if it was a volcano and all they saw was a column of water and smoke and the pilot cutter was no more,” says Bill Watson, whose uncle Ralph Phillips and great-grandfather Robert Phillips were on board.
His name appears on the Addenda Panel of the Tower Hill Memorial, London.
It was reported that the Pilot Cutter Protector was mined a mile to the North off the mouth of the River Tyne as she went to escort a ship into the river. Nineteen men were lost. Other reports suggest that she was attacked by a submarine. A diving survey in 1995 indicated that the wreck is some two miles from her given position.
Sources; The James Hoy Archive; Northumbrian WW1 Project; Bill Watson 2012; BBC; The British Newspaper Archive; The Pilots Log: Find A Grave; BBC;
William Hopper Tinmouth is remembered at South Shields on S86.030, S86.062 also in the Masonic Roll of Honour 1914-18 (London) and in our List of Ships‘ Crews.
