13th August 1915 - Sinking of the troopship Royal Edward Today 13th August 2014 we remember Private Samuel Martin (SS13953) who served with the18th Labour Co. of the Army Service Corps. Samuel was a Cornishman, born in Tywardreath, Cornwall who enlisted in London. His entry in UK Soldiers Died in the Great War 1914-1919 indicated that he died at sea on 13th August 1915 and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial. I discovered that Samuel was on the Royal Edward troopship and I quote here from freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry/~arrow/18th_labour_company.htm The 18th Labour Company of the Army Service Corps were en route to Mudros on the Isle of Lemnos when their troopship Royal Edward was sunk by a German torpedo on 13th August 1915. The Royal Edward had set sail from Avonmouth and made her first landfall at Alexandria, where she collected fresh supplies and more troops. As she picked her way through the Dodecanese Islands she was attacked by U-14 and sank, with great loss of life, 6 miles west of Kandelioussa Island in the Gulf of Kos. The majority of the 18th Labour Company was from Cornwall, but there are some men from London and the surrounding counties. They are generally mature men, aged between 30 and 60. Many of them are married with large families to support. Some are former soldiers, who, no longer fit for active duty, were assigned to a service corps. Most of the men died when the ship sank and their bodies were never found. Others survived the sinking only to die from the effects of exposure or from wounds a few days later. In a very few cases bodies were recovered by Allied ships and taken to Alexandria for burial. Some men came through this ordeal only to die at Gallipoli within a few months. Samuel was 57 when he died. Samuels square has been stitched by Jennifer Poole, thank you Jennifer. The photo of Helles Memorial is with kind permission of Lynne Roffe, taken whilst on a Battlefield Tour.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 07:02:42 +0000
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