Francis O'Keefe
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: William and Margaret O'Keefe
Marital status: Married
Home address: Home Address: 69 Abbotsford Road, Liverpool. Lived: 83 Scarisbrick Drive, Norris Green, Liverpool
Date of birth: 21/04/1916
Place of birth: Liverpool
Date of death: 23/12/1941
Buried/Commemorated at: Died at sea and commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial and the Maritime Memorial Thornbury
Age: 25
Further information:
Francis was born and raised in Liverpool. He was the son of a general labourer and had 5 siblings younger than him. A newspaper report says that he was married at the time of his death.
On the day of his death Francis 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 Francis, were lost. He was one of 10 gunners from the 6th Maritime Regiment alone who lost their lives in this incident.
Francis died on 23/12/41 (Not 3/3/42 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/1234.html