Burutu Passenger Casualty - Ernest George Mercer

Eltham District Times 11 October 1918

MERCER - On 3rd October, at sea, on the occasion of the foundering of the s.s. Burutu, by collision, Ernest George Mercer, Executive Engineer, Nigerian Civil Service, dearly beloved husband of Pauline Mercer, of Briarside, Longlands Park-Road, Sidcup.

18 October 1918

SIDCUP RESIDENT AMONG THE DROWNED

Mr O Robyns Owen held an inquest on Thursday into the death of 25 persons whose bodies were washed ashore at different places on the Lleyn Peninsula, North Wales. They transpired to have come from the Elder Dempster liner Burutu, which was sunk in collision in the channel. Among the bodies was that of Mr Ernest George Mercer, son of Major George Mercer of Sidcup, who was identified by fellow passengers who had been saved. Mr Arthur Owen, who had appeared on behalf of the Elder Dempster Company expressed sympathy with the parents and relatives of the deceased. A verdict of “found drowned” was returned.

Yorkshire Evening Post 10th October 1918

LEEDS MAN LOST ON THE BURUTU.

Major S.M. Mercer, A.S.C., Leeds and Ilkley, has received a telegram stating that the body of his eldest son, Executive Engineer Ernest George Mercer, had been washed up from the wreck of the Burutu. He joined the Colonial Department about nine years ago and was returning home on leave. He was forty years of age and leaves a wife and two children.