4th Engineer Officer William Henry Irving Elliott
- Amanda T
- May 24, 2020
- 3 min read
Identification
There is a discrepancy in the names here, the memorial clearly says William H J Elliott but his name was in fact William Henry Irving Elliott. His entry in the deaths at sea register is for William H Elliott. There are no other possibilities for this name and as his brother is also on the memorial I am confident that this is the right man.
Family Information
William H I Elliott was born in Liverpool on 9th July 1890. His parents were John Irving Elliott and Elizabeth Brakell.
William was baptised on 31st August 1890 and (I assume in error) his name was recorded as William Henry Irving Elliott Elliott.
On the baptism record the address is hard to make out but looks like Mosebury Street and his father's occupation was plumber.
At the time of the 1891 census they were living at 86 Adelaide Road. John I Elliott, head of the household, was aged 25 and employed as a plumber. His wife Elizabeth was 23 and William their son was aged 8 months.
In the 1901 census the Elliott family were living at 36 Alfred Street, Toxteth. John Elliott was working as a plumber and the rest of the family consisted of his wife Elizabeth and their children William H age 10, Hugh I aged 9, John I aged 7, Robert Archibald aged 4, Lilian aged 3, James aged 2, and Herbert Lane aged 2 months.
Alfred Street was very close to St James' Church, in the area that is now the Anglican Cathedral and student housing.
In the 1911 census the family were living at 16 Streatham Avenue, William was a Marine Engineer (apprentice) and was living with his parents and 5 siblings, sadly his brother John had died.
Crew lists survives which show that William’s first voyage was as a 7th engineer on the SS Lake Champlain, he was 22 years old and signed on for the voyage on 23/7/1912, his wages were seven pounds per month (compared to twenty pounds per month for a chief engineer) and he was kept on for the next few voyages at least.
Wartime Service:
During the First World War William Elliott continued to serve in the Merchant Marine. This was a very dangerous time for British shipping as the German submarines were ordered to sink all merchant shipping without warning. The Admiralty armed some merchant vessels and gave escorts when possible but through the triple threat of submarines, the German fleet and undersea mines, many ships and lives were lost.
William's medal card shows that he received the Mercantile Marine Medal and British War Medal (they were sent to his mother.)
Death and Commemoration
William was one of the 15 men killed when his ship, the defensively-armed S.S.HUNTSTRICK, was torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine U-39 on 8 June 1917, west of Gibraltar.
Below is his entry in the index of marine deaths.
Merchant sailors were not always commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, their death had to be caused directly by enemy action. Clearly this was true for William. As his body was not recovered for burial, his name is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial in London.
William's brother Hugh was killed just three months later and their names are inscribed together on the St James Memorial as well as the memorials in St Barnabus' Church and St Matthew and St James Church, Mossley Hill. (below)
Their names were also together in the Roll of Honour in the Liverpool Echo on 10th October 1917
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