Ernest Angus Wilkinson
Memorial: Thornbury & District Museum: 6th Maritime Regiment Memorial
Regiment: 6th Maritime Regiment
Medals: 1939–45 Star, War Medal 1939–1945
Rank and number: Gunner
Home address: Hillingdon Heath, Middlesex
Date of birth: 1914
Place of birth: Wembley, Middlesex
Date of death: 23/12/1941
Buried/Commemorated at: Died at sea and commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial and the Maritime Memorial Thornbury
Age: 27
Further information:
Ernest was born in Wembley Middlesex.
On the day of his death Ernest was serving aboard the British Steam Passenger Ship ‘Shuntien’, part of convoy TA-5, on route from Tobruk, Libya to Alexandria, Egypt carrying 70 crew members, 18 gunners and 850-1100 German and Italian Prisoners of War. At 19.02 hours on 23 Dec 1941, the vessel was torpedoed and sunk by U-boat U-559 northeast of Tobruk. The master, 47 crew members and an unknown number of gunners and prisoners were picked up by HMS Salvia and were all lost when the ship was sunk by U-boat U-568 the next day. An unknown number of survivors were picked up by HMS Heythrop but in all, over 700 men including Ernest, were lost. He was one of 10 gunners from the 6th Maritime Regiment alone who lost their lives in this incident. Ernest was originally reported as missing which was changed to killed in action 3 months later.
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/1234.html