William Mitchell
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
Parents: Arthur Bowman and Charlesina McRorrie Mitchell
Date of birth: 03/06/1922
Place of birth: Falkirk
Date of death: 17/11/1942
Buried/Commemorated at: Died at sea and commemorated on Chatham Naval Memorial and the Maritime Memorial Thornbury
Age: 20
Further information:
William was with the Argyll and Southern Highlanders before volunteering for the 6th Maritime. At the time of his death, William was serving aboard the British Steam Merchant ‘Widestone’ which was on route from St John’s Canada to Milford Haven in Wales as part of convoy ONS-144. The vessel was carrying a cargo of 3400 tons of coal. At 23.46 hours on 17 Nov 1942, U-boat U-184 fired three single torpedoes at three ships in the convoy, about 500 miles southeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland, but only the ‘Widestone’ was hit and sunk. The master, 34 crew members and seven gunners, including William were lost. There were no survivors. William was originally reported as missing which was changed to presumed killed in action after 8 months.
His date of death is incorrectly recorded as 19th 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.findmypast.co.uk/
https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/
https://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ship/2436.html