Charles BOYLE, Ordinary Seaman

[daggers]

This 16-year-old appears on our church's WW1 memorial plaque with his unit and rank shown as 'Transport, Seaman'. In the Book of Remembrance he is 'Seaman, HM Transport Nigeria'. With help from this Forum I have found that ss Nigeria was an Elder Dempster vessel (probably under government charter), which suffered a fire while in port at Romanoff [now Murmansk] in northern Russia in March 1917. There is no CWGC entry for this seaman.

I have the death certificate from the Marine Register which shows that Boyle died on 9 March 1917, a crew member in Nigeria, cause of death 'lost in fire to ship'. The report of his death was made to the Registrar in May 1917.

Again with help from Forum members, I have now seen photos of the ship at the time, on flickr.com. She was salvaged and returned to UK, then renamed Polonia.

With the above information, is there a case for submission to CWGC?. As the date was around the start of the revolution, I suspect it unlikely that we could get any details of burial etc. from Russian authorities, but ideas would be welcomed, as would comment from Terry.

It is a side issue, but I found it interesting that the RN depot ship at Murmansk which assisted in the salvage operation was HMS Iphigenia, later one of the blockships at Zeebrugge.

Daggers

[Terry Denham]

Daggers

This man will not qualify for CWGC commemoration.

As a member of the Mercantile Marine he is not subject to the same rules as service personnel. He would have to die on duty and of a war cause.

The cause of death you give would be classed as an accident and therefore not qualify.

[daggers]

Daggers

This man will not qualify for CWGC commemoration.

As a member of the Mercantile Marine he is not subject to the same rules as service personnel. He would have to die on duty and of a war cause.

The cause of death you give would be classed as an accident and therefore not qualify.

Terry

Thank you for defining the terms for Merchant Seaman. Pity, but understood.

Daggers