My Grandad
William (Billy) Landrum.
Lived in Pasture Av Moreton. There was an article about him in the Liverpool Echo, saving a shipmate whilst he was actually injured himself when his ship was bombed during WWII.
He was very 'ah well' 'that's what anyone would have done' about it but believe me he was a proud man

You find this stuff from somewhere bert

Sorry, Mike,

Nothing in the papers I can access, it's likely you would need to look in the Liverpool records office for reports in the Echo at that time.

That is a shame bert Thanks for looking
He was born about 1923, vauxall area, Byron road I think
Ah well

Yes, birth registered, Liverpool, September 1923, Mothers maiden name, Shields.

1903 marriage, Liverpool, All Saints,
George Landrum
Mary Shields

Was William, Merchant or Royal Navy?

Royal I think, his ship was torpedoed
Thanks Bert

Just asked my mum and she was not sure if he was Royal or Merchant but remembers him going to America for training

Many merchant ships were torpedoed mikeeb, did he wear a uniform? only MN officers wore uniform but not the seamen, a lot of our MN lads went to the US for training and to pick up the various types of ships being turned out by the shipyards there, Victory boats etc, or he could have been RN picking up a lend lease warship.

That is what is leading me, to now believe it was the merchant navy casper
My mum doesn't know and I cannot find anything of a military record which strengthens the MN belief

This might be William,


Name:
William Landrum
Birth Date:
abt 1923
Birth Country:
England
Age:
18
Gender:
Male
Race/Nationality:
English
Arrival Date:
3 Nov 1941
Port of Arrival:
Quebec, Canada
Ship Name:
Beaverhill
Port of Departure:
Liverpool, England
Residence Country:
England

Also,


Name:
William Landrum
Arrival Date:
24 Feb 1947
Birth Date:
abt 1923
Age:
24
Gender:
Male
Ethnicity/ Nationality:
English
Port of Departure:
Liverpool, England
Port of Arrival:
New York, New York
Ship Name:
Fort Musquarro

SS Beaverhill,

Bert you are a star I knew you would find something
I shall check with my mum and auntie tomorrow

Further Information,

The William Landrum who sailed on the SS Beaverhill declared as his next of kin,
Mary Landrum,
2 Kingsmead rd,
Wallasey.

It appears that he was sent out to Baltimore to pick up MV Myrmedon (spelt incorrectly on record) I think it should be, MV Myrmidon. This ship was torpedoed.

http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?14899
The image shows he was sent by A Holt & Co.

Brief description of William, Fresh comp, Auburn Hair, Grey Eyes, Scar over eye.

The William Landrum, 1947, Fort Musquarro, declares 10 years at sea, description, 5' 1" and 123 lbs, Occupation, Trimmer.

Does the address and descriptions match your William?

1938 directory for Kingsmead Rd, Wallasey, confirming correct address for William, his father was George Landrum.

Nice bit of detective work Bert, just a few more details to add, Myrmidon belonged to Alfred Holt, more commonly known as the Blue Funnel line, at 02.33 on September 5th 1942 just SE of Cape Palmas she was torpedoed and sunk by U 506 commanded by Erich Wurdeman, all 245 members of crew and passengers were saved.

Correct Bert
My Mother confirms Mary and George as there names
The address and description spot on, he was a very small bloke
Are they 2 different William's on SS Beaverhill and MV Myrmedon?
My Mother and Auntie will now get a print of the ship that was torpedoed. They did not know the name of the ship, they was told it was top secret
Bert you are a genius and I cannot thank you enough

Mike,

I'm confident its your William on all the records I have quoted or posted.
He and others were sent to Baltimore on the Beaverhill to crew the MV Myrmidon.
The Myrmidon was indeed torpedoed, however I have no evidence William was on board at the time, seems very likely but I'd like to see conclusive proof.

I agree Bert, that is him. My Mother confirms addresses and names
It was the SS Beaverhill and MV Myrmidon that was throwing me off
Now you explain, he set off on Beaverhill to then crew the Myrmidon answers it. He was on a torpedoed ship and would have been very unlucky to be on 2 so it has got to be the MV Myrmidon. He did work with blue funnel for a long time
The conclusive proof has to be in that newspaper article which has been lost which is a damn shame
Many thanks again Bert
I will download a print of that ship and put in a frame

OMG!
I have just been speaking to my Dad regarding the Myrmidon and how they all survived
He was telling me some stories from my Grandad
He was on 3 ships that had been torpedoed and recalled one story that broke my Grandad's heart

Grandad had hold of an injured shipmates hand trying to hold him up above water. He was only a young kid and was crying I want my mum as he slipped out of his hand drowned

Absolutely Heartbreaking

Its a shame it has taken so long for the MN to be recognized for the part it played during the war, I got the bit in my teeth reading about your granddad:

Just a bit about the SS Beaverhill she did many Atlantic crossings unscathed but ran aground in St Johns Harbour and sank in 1944.

But she had a famous sister ship the SS Beaverford who formed part of Convoy HX-84 this convoy was quite famous for many heroic actions, on November the 5th 1940 the convoy was attacked by the German cruiser Admiral Scheer, the armed merchant cruiser Jervis Bay turned to face her firing her guns, the uneven action ended with the loss of Jervis Bay her captain was later awarded the VC, however not so well known was the action of SS Beaverford manned by a MN crew with 2 DEMS gunners aboard who also attacked the Scheer, unarmoured with only two small guns one forward the other aft she was pounded again and again before she could get in range, she carried on this hide and seek action for four hours, darting in and out masked by smoke floats and the dark until finally pounded by enemy gunfire and stopped she was torpedoed by the Scheer and lost with all hands, while these actions were going on the convoy dispersed and escaped, of the 38 ships of the convoy six were sunk by the Admiral Sheer, but without the courage of the actions of these ships and their crews the convoy would have been decimated, just as an addendum, the tanker San Demetrio was also part of the convoy after being set alight by gunfire from the Admiral Scheer, abandoned by her crew then reboarded and sailed back home.
All good stuff Mike, makes you proud, so sad we don't see the Red Duster so much now, nearly all flags of convenience.

We certainly owe a debt of gratitude to them all.

How disgusting it was, prior to May 1941 when Merchant Seamen were fighting for survival in the water and lifeboats, their pay was stopped.

After May 1941, agreement was reached and they remained on pay whatever their circumstances.

We certainly do Bert
Theres is so much I don't know about this subject


WOW! Thanks casper
Anymore stories on theses convoys and ships?

Mike if you get the chance to watch it there is a film called "San Demetrio London" which tells the tale of San Demetrio she was an oil tanker and part of the aforementioned convoy, dated but well worth a viewing.

Cheers casper

Another sea tale you might be interested in:

The sinking of SS Automedon, she was also a Blue Funnel Line ship of 7,500 tons, she sailed from Liverpool en route to Singapore on the 24th of September under the command of Captain Ewan, she had a quiet voyage, until 07.00 on the 11 November 1940 when she encountered the German surface raider Atlantis (commerce raiders were heavily armed ships disguised as merchant ships), Atlantis ran up her German ensign and uncovered her guns, Automedon immediately transmitted a distress signal RRR- Automedon-041N , the Germans then fired four salvo's hitting the bridge and killing all the officers and decimating the upper structure of the ship, the Germans boarded her and transferred the survivors to Atlantis, after some looting of cargo they found the strong room, where they discovered Top Secret orders for the British Far East Command outlining the Singapore defences and naval intelligence reports, they were in a weighted bag which should have been dropped overboard in the event of capture, but those who knew about it had been killed on the bridge, this information was passed on to the Japanese which it is believed to have encouraged them to expand their plans to invade Singapore after discovering that we had little or no naval force in the East.

Some years later in the early sixties I found myself on a Blue Funnel ship as part of her deck crew, one of the many jobs we had was to chip away the paint from areas that were prone to rust and then apply red lead and repaint, whilst doing this I decided to paint a swastika in red lead ( young and stupid) later in the day I was pulled by the bosun, He said I never want to see another one of those things as long as I live, nothing else no explanation, I learned later he was a survivor of the crew of the Automedon. This story about the Automedon has so much more to it than I can write here, escapes by some of the crew etc.

Nice one casper, I love it

Liverpool Echo, Sept 8, 1941

Just spotted this reading through old posts.
Thank you very much Bert.

You're very welcome, Mike.

Found an article from British newspaper archives.
Liverpool Echo, Monday 8th September 1942
Hope this link works:
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1BxPqHEB9imFZr8prcNtyLQlqvm2dckl-

Thank you MissG, love it.
You show 2 screenshots, is the second one, 'food from u-boat' part of the same article?
If possible, is there any chance you could screenshot the whole page? Cheers.