war graves in the isle of Barra

[Weejanie1]

On holiday at the moment in the Western Isles and went to visit the War Graves at the wee Church of Scotland in Barra.

There were a few there but the names that surprised me most was Chung Cheong one of a few of what appears to be Chinese namesI.

He served on the S.S Idomeneus. I am still on hols and limited to the amount of research that I can do from the Western Isles. I am doing this from the library

as I have no internet where I am staying. I wondered if anyone knows what happened to these men and why they are commemorated in Barra.

 

In Memory of
Fireman

Chung Cheong

S.S. "Idomeneus.", Mercantile Marine who died on 15 September 1917
Alternative Commemoration - buried in Vatersay ("Annie Jane" Monument) Burial Ground.
Remembered with Honour

Cuier (or Barra Parish) Churchyard, Isle of Barra

 

Thanks for any help

Regards

Jane

 

[John_Hartley]

Ship was hit on 15/9/17 by a single torpedo fired from U-67, whilst on route from New York to Liverpool. Four men were killed by the explosion. Chung Cheong, Leong Kow and Chan Sung were firemen and George Duddleston a junior engineer. The ship was runa ground to prevent sinking and she was later repaired.

[Ron Clifton]

Hello Jane

The most likely explanation is that they were the crews of merchant ships which were sunk by U-boats. British metchant shipping made extensive use of foreign crewmen - perhaps not unexpectedly, given the global nature of British commerce - so finding a Chinaman in the crew is not that unusual.

Edit: John beat me to it!

Ron

[Weejanie1]

Thanks guys

Sorry for the late response had no internet whilst on Barra. They are mentioned in the Church of Scotland but there bodies are

Interred at the AnnieJane memorial in Vattersay. I assumed that would be because they were not Christain, would that be right.

The memorial is dedicated to the 350 people who lost there lives when the ship was wrecked in the bay.

Interesting, thanks again.

Jane

[Gregory]

Here are the relevant entries from my database of Chinese casualties in the British Merchant Marine:

ss Idomeneus. Torpedoed by U-67 off the North Channel; beached at Vatersay; four lives lost.

Chan Sung of Hong Kong. Fireman. †15th September 1917, aged 30. Memorial, Cuier Churchyard, Barra (Barraigh); buried in Vatersay (Annie Jane Monument) Burial Ground, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

Chung Cheong of Hong Kong. Fireman. †15th September 1917, aged 31. Memorial, Cuier Churchyard, Barra (Barraigh); buried in Vatersay (Annie Jane Monument) Burial Ground, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

Leong Kow of Hong Kong. Fireman. †15th September 1917, aged 29. Memorial, Cuier Churchyard, Barra (Barraigh); buried in Vatersay (Carragarie Point) Burial Ground, Outer Hebrides, Scotland.

[Weejanie1]

Thanks Gregory

Do you think the reason that they are buried at the Annie Jane memorial and not in the

church grounds was maybe due to the fact that they were not Christians.

Regards

Jane x

[seaJane]

The fact that they were from Hong Kong doesn't actually preclude their being Christian, as far as I know - would the local burial registers have the answer, though?

[Weejanie1]

Hi SeaJane

Although it was a tiny churchyard it included other war graves, theres was the only ones that

Said they were interred at the Annie Jane monument, thats what got me thinking

They may have been of a different religion. Unfortunately I was only there for a short

Stay and no time to check burial records but hope to go back next year and hopefully do just

that. Thanks for the idea.

Regards

Jane x

[Guest]

Hello everybody

 

Quite a dated post but I did a search online and this was all that came up. Thanks Jane for bringing the subject up before.

I did try and post a few weeks ago but for some reason it did not work.

 

I also came across this headstone in Cuidhir and was intrigued by it as well.

Its all very odd the other casualty George Duddlestone they went to the bother of shipping all the way to England.

Chan Sung and Chung Cheong were buried in the Annie Jane Monument burial ground by the crew. Unfortunately the location of that mass grave where the remains of up to 350 Irish, Scottish and English emigrants are interred has been lost.

Were they buried there because they were not Christians? I doubt that, you could argue that though it might not be consecrated ground its is full of people both Catholics and Protestants who were of the Christian faith,

Then they took Leong Kow to the Carrigridgh burial ground and he was interred there. This is where the remains of a 12th to 14th century chapel are with allegedly an old burial ground around it.  This would have involved carrying the body about a mile and a half or taking it by boat about a mile. Not really a convenient spot for them. We don't know in which order they interred them; the Annie Jane memorial first or Carrigridgh point? Why not put them all together? I don't think that is a question we can ever answer?

I went to Carrigridh and searched but its just overgrown jumbled up earth with the remains of the stone chapel in the middle.

 

So all the graves are lost; the war graves commission searched for the graves in 1917 put up the special memorial in 1930, searched again in 2009.

 

The memorial stone was put up on the Isle of Barra, at the time it was erected to reach Isle of Vatersay you would have had the inconvenience of arranging a boat, transport on the other side etc So the stone was erected on Barra for convenience. Vatersay is now linked by a causeway to Barra, I think an argument could be made for shifting the gravestone to Vatersay graveyard ( There wasn't one on Vatersay in 1917) as there is quite a large graveyard now; at least it would be on the same island as where they are all interred The other issue of course is; why only one stone? We are not dealing with multiple casualties here but three men who deserve to be honoured equally even 100 years after the event,

 

I am glad to say that the local community on Vatersay and Barra has recently formed a committee; their objective to restore and enhance the memorial. They are also raising funds to carry out a geophysical survey around the Annie Jane monument to try and locate the two mass graves of the 350 lost  immigrants. If they can raise the funds and carry this out then the graves of Chan Sung and Chung Cheong would possibly be re-discovered, it would certainly be a wonderful result if they were?

 

Hopefully thanks to the efforts of the Vatersay and Barra community this story might not be over yet, and we can at least mark two of the graves properly.

 

Regards Allan

 

Ps: if anybody wants to see the memorial and get a view of Vatersay. There is a video on youtube put up by Alan Jenkins called 'Annie Jane-A tale without ending' in which you can view the landscape. Pause it at 1 minute 20 seconds and you can just see Carragridh point the headland in the distance to the left of the open sea.