Elvet Rodrick Edwards
Memorial: Thornbury & District Museum: 6th Maritime Regiment Memorial
Regiment: 6th Maritime Regiment
Medals: 1939–45 Star, War Medal 1939–1945
Rank and number: Gunner
Parents: Richard and Elizabeth Edwards
Home address: 4 Eifl Road, Canaervonshire, North Wales
Pre-war occupation: Paving Stone Maker
Date of birth: 18/12/1913
Date of death: 14/09/1942
Buried/Commemorated at: Died at sea and commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial and the Maritime Memorial Thornbury
Age: 28
Further information:
Elvet was the son of a paving stone maker and in 1939 he was working in the same trade. His mother had died so he was living with his widowed father.
Elvet was serving aboard the British Steam Tanker ‘Empire Oil’ which was a straggler from convoy ON-127, on route from Milford Haven to New York carrying a cargo of ballast. At 21.10 hours on 10 September 1942, U-boat U-659 fired 2 torpedoes at the ship and stopped it south west of Iceland. The following day a 2nd U-boat sank the drifting vessel and 2 crew members and one gunner died. Of the 50 survivors 26 were picked up by one ship and landed safely at St John's Canada and 24 were rescued by the destroyer HMS Ottawa. Sadly, on the 14th September the destroyer was torpedoed and sunk by U-boat U-91 and twelve crew members and four gunners, including Elvet, from the Empire Oil were amongst the casualties.
Died: 14 Sep 1942 (not 10th September as on Memorial)
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
This information has been provided by Sarah Hands, Volunteer Researcher for the South Gloucestershire War Memorials Web Site.
By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):
https://www.cwgc.org/
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/2147.html