James William Owen
Memorial: Thornbury & District Museum: 6th Maritime Regiment Memorial
Regiment: 6th Maritime Regiment
Medals: 1939–45 Star, War Medal 1939–1945
Rank and number: Lance Bombardier
Home address: London, W2
Date of birth: 1922
Place of birth: London, W2
Date of death: 29/07/1943
Buried/Commemorated at: Died at sea and commemorated Plymouth Naval Memorial Devon and the Maritime Memorial Thornbury
Age: 21
Further information:
James was born and raised in London W2.
On the day of his death, James was serving aboard the unescorted British Motor Merchant ‘Cornish City’, which had previously been part of dispersed convoy DN-53, and was on route from Durban to Aden carrying a cargo of 9600 tons of coal. At 09.00 hours on 29 July 1943, South East of Madagascar, Cornish City was hit by a torpedo from U-boat U-177 and sank within one minute. The master, 31 crew members and five gunners, including James, were lost. Five crew members and one gunner managed to escape on rafts and were picked up by an Australian destroyer and landed on Mauritius. James was originally reported as missing which was changed to presumed killed in action 10 months later.
His Rank was Lance Bombardier (not gunner 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/3027.html