While having far too many military casualties of war in my family tree, I came across two (among a few more) who were members of Britain’s Merchant Navy who died in the Second World War.
Charles Matthews Cater (my second cousin, twice removed) was the Master of the SS Yat Shing (Hong Kong), a British merchant vessel that had been absorbed into Britain’s Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) during the First World War. Charles had served on various ships during his Merchant Navy career, but at the time of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, the Yat Shing was in Aberdeen Naval Harbour, in the British Protectorate.
During the invasion, on 16th December 1941, the ship came under fire from Japanese forces and Charles was killed. He left a wife and two teenaged children in Honiton, Devon.
The ship survived and was requisitioned by Japanese forces, who renamed her Nissho Maru. She hit a mine off Yawata, Japan, on 17th July 1945 and sank. The wreck was raised and broken up in 1950.
Guy Roy Humphry (my third cousin, twice removed) was a seaman on the British freighter SS Empire Surf (Sunderland). The Empire Surf was not Guy’s first ship, but the ship itself was new and in convoy was making a ballast run, so empty of cargo, from Manchester to Jacksonville, Florida, in the United States.
In the early hours of 14th January 1942, the Empire Surf was attacked by German U-Boat, U-43, and sank, someway south of Iceland. There were forty-seven men listed as dead or missing, and six survivors who were picked up by HMS Alisma. Guy was among the missing, presumed dead. He was just 20 years old.
Charles, Guy, and I share a common ancestor, Daniel Cater (1830-1906) of Kingskerswell, Devon. Daniel is my great-great-great uncle, Charles’ grandfather and Guy’s great-grandfather.
Both men’s names are listed on the Merchant Navy Memorial in Tower Hill, London, Charles on panel 120 and Guy on panel 26.
Details pertaining to the British and Commonwealth war dead in the twentieth and twenty-first century can be gleaned from the excellent website and database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission: http://www.cwgc.org.
