wightspirit Posted 16 April , 2015 Share Posted 16 April , 2015 Hello everyone On 24 March 1918 the SS War Knight was in collision in the English Channel. She caught fire and there was heavy loss of life. According to the crew list, one of those who died is shown as F Roberts, 30, Seaman, born London. There is no other information and Deaths at Sea at TNA do not add anything. He is not commemorated because the loss of so many men was said to have been due to marine accident rather than war cause. I'm trying to prove or disprove if F Roberts is the same man as per the attached medal card. The address on the bottom right of the card is hardly legible, but if it can be determined what it is I can search backwards to see if the two men are one and the same. I'm not too worried about the discrepancies in their ages (F Roberts was recorded as 30, so born in 1888, while Frederick Roberts is recorded as having been born in 1882). Such discrepancies are common in crew lists I've researched. The medal card shows Frederick as deceased, and he is not listed the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, so he may or may not be my man. The questions are; can anyone decipher the address, and can anyone confirm they are one and the same or two different individuals? Apologies that the card is displayed on its side... Dave W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnboy Posted 16 April , 2015 Share Posted 16 April , 2015 Possibly 14 or 4 Eastwood Road? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ernest james Posted 16 April , 2015 Share Posted 16 April , 2015 I think that the medal card refers to a different man. The medal card includes the RS2 No 853460 which would be his identity card number. These cards began to be issued in September 1918. FINDMYPAST has a matching central record CR10 card for this man who was at sea in late 1919 and working as a chief steward. It appears from the CR10 card that the authorities discovered that the man was dead sometime in 1925 when they tried to issue him with his medals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe R Posted 16 April , 2015 Share Posted 16 April , 2015 Per Uboat.net, War Knight was sunk by enemy action after collision with another ship. http://www.uboat.net/wwi/ships_hit/6447.html Respectfully Joe R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wightspirit Posted 17 April , 2015 Author Share Posted 17 April , 2015 Gents - Thank you for your replies. Ernest - you've clinched it for me - they are different men. Having checked all my other copies of medal cards for those on the War Knight, all have the Discharge Number blank. Should have noticed it but didn't. Thanks again. All I need to do now is discover who F Roberts actually was. Dave W Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melliget Posted 3 May , 2015 Share Posted 3 May , 2015 A court case after the war relating to the collision. No mention of it being mined. The ships were in convoy at the time. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbill Posted 3 May , 2015 Share Posted 3 May , 2015 Eastwood Road, Goodmayes. Essex. Now part of Ilford, Greater London. I think the first two symbols are the word 'at'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now