H.T. Aeneas

[sjmclaren]

The death certificate of Pte George Alfred Wiseman, 3rd Garrison Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, notes that he died of pneumonia on 13 April 1919 and was buried at sea on H.T. Aeneas. The CWGC and National Army Museum have recently confirmed that he does qualify for commemoration, having died while still in service before 31 August 1921, but the NAM can give me no certainty as where he died: possibly in Bombay or at sea they say. His place of death doesn't affect his qualification for CWGC commemoration but I find it curious that there is a possibility he may have died on land and been buried at sea. Does anyone have any information on HT Aeneas? I beleive she was an Australian troopship serving Gallipoli in 1915 but where was she bound on 13 April 1919?

[IPT]

Maritime Deaths have him as died at sea.

The 3rd Garrison Bn, Bedfordshire Regiment transferred from Burma to Lucknow on 27th May 1919. Perhaps Wiseman was being returned to England sick in April?

The nearest that I can locate H.M.A.T. A 60 Aeneas is embarking from Adelaide 5th March 1919, and embarking from Southampton on 31st May 1919. I don't know the route taken, but the voyage took 21 days from England to Australia.

[sotonmate]

File WO25/3588 at Kew contains military freight/personnel movements from Abroad to Home for the period April to August 1919. Specific papers relate to each ship contained in the File,which doesn't ordinarily list the names of OR soldiers,but there might be a reference to a burial at sea,with likely co-ordinates.

[frev]

Narrowing it down a little more - the Aeneas arrived at Colombo on the 31st March 1919 - and then Liverpool on the 7th May 1919.

[sjmclaren]

Thanks, one and all. It looks then that HT Aeneas was bound for England at the time of Pte Wiseman's death. Possibly, then, she called at Bombay after Colombo and Pte Wiseman died and was buried at sea somewhere in the Arabian Sea as she steamed towards Aden. Various Australian websites I have looked at indicate Aeneas was used to bring Australian troops home after she arrived in England in May 1919 and that she was bombed and sunk by German aircraft of Plymouth on 2 July 1940.