Seaman Angus Macdonald, from Bernera, Lewis, was born in July 1890. The son of Norman and Mary Macdonald, Angus was the second youngest of their nine children and joined the Royal Naval Reserve at the age of 19. Four of his brothers also joined, all of whom would survive the war. Some 6,000 Lewis islanders,…

Robert Goudie Sandison, seaman RNR, was born Catfirth, Nesting, Shetland on the 16th of March 1895 . He was the second child born to Hunter and Mary Ann Sandison (née Goudie). Hunter had become a widower in 1889 when his first wife Davina (née Tait) passed away. Hunter and Davina had nine children and the…

Frederick John Woollard, fireman on HMS Laurentic, was born on the 12th of March 1877 in Swansea, on the south coast of Wales. He was the eldest of 11 children born to Frederick and Ann Woollard (née Kidwell). Both of his parents were born and raised in Swansea. They married there on the 31st of…

Sub Lieutenant Allan Boyle de Blaquiere was born on March 28th 1895, in Wellow, Somerset, about 5 miles south of Bath. He was the youngest of three children born to William de Blaquiere and Marie Lucienne Henriette Adine de Blaquiere (née Desbarats). His mother was French Canadian, born in Montreal, Quebec, daughter of George Desbarats,…

Robert Roger Godfrey MMR, chief carpenter on the Laurentic, was born in Seacombe in 1885, the eldest of four children born to William Benjamin Godfrey (Captain aboard the Wallasey Ferries) and Emily Godfrey (née Dodd). His parents had married in Birkenhead in 1884. At the time of the 1891 census William and Emily were living…

Engineer Lieutenant Commander George Robert Rutledge, R.N.R. was born in 1878 in Timaru, New Zealand, the son of retired police Sergeant Charles Rutledge and Annie Rutledge. He was educated at the Riverton District High School, Southland and in 1894 started his apprenticeship with Messrs. John Anderson & Son’s, Canterbury Foundry, Christchurch, which he completed in…

Petty Officer Robert Wilcocks was born on September 21st 1888, Islington, London. He was the second child of Elizabeth Emma Wilcocks (née White) and John Waddington Wilcocks. His parents, both Londoners, had married in London in 1886. His father worked as a law writer and solicitor’s clerk. In the 1891 census the couple were living…

Engineer Lieutenant Hubert Augustus Sewell was Born in 1884, to Tom Wilson Sewell and Lavinia Quick Sewell (née Fox), of 34 Sandymount Drive, New Brighton. He was the second youngest of their eight children. His father, also an engineer, had been serving with the White Star Line since it had been formed and was for…

Engineer Sub Lieutenant John McVicar, R.N.R. was born on the 2nd of June 1889, at Port Glasgow, the 4th child of Neil and Isabella McVicar (née McEwan). His parents were both born and grew up in Glassary, Argyleshire and married there in 1878. His father was a Master Seaman who had worked on ships, in…

In a memoir of his childhood in Downpatrick “Black Puddings with Slim”, the late Maurice Hayes, respected Irish public servant, talks about the impact of the death of his aunt’s husband Thomas Hugh Craig. “Auntie Lil had lost her husband of a few days to a ship called the Laurentic mined in Lough Swilly and…