John MacDonald
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: John and Grace MacDonald
Marital status: Married
Home address: Cowie, Stirlingshire
Date of birth: 1907
Date of death: 07/03/1943
Buried/Commemorated at: Died at sea and commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial and the Maritime Memorial Thornbury
Age: 35
Further information:
John was married to Annie MacDonald.
John's army records report that he went missing on the 12th July 1942 but that he was subsequently found on the 17th December 1942 and had been detained in French West Africa. On the day he died, he was on his way back from West Africa to Loch Ewe Scotland, via New York, serving aboard the British Steam Merchant 'Egyptian' which was part of convoy SC-121. Egyptian was carrying a cargo of 6689 tons of West African produce, including oil seed, palm oil and tin ore and at 02.10 hours on 7 March 1943 it was torpedoed and sunk by U-boat U-230. The 'Empire Impala' which was part of the same convoy was ordered to pick up the survivors and as a consequence fell behind to be torpedoed and sunk by U-boat U-592. Of the 49 men who had been aboard the Egyptian, 46 died including John. The 3 survivors were picked up and landed at Londonderry Ireland.
His name is misspelled McDonald on Memorial and his date of death is incorrectly recorded as 6th March 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/2723.html