James Tonkies

James Tonkies was another mystery, as with his brother I could find plenty of records for his life but nothing for his death. Then a very helpful member of the Great War Forum pointed me in the direction of the deaths at sea records, another very helpful member of the same forum went to the trouble of photographing an account of the sinking of the SS Burutu and emailing the pictures to me. Many thanks are due to them and to all the members of the forum who read my posts and responded with ideas, information and encouragement.

Anyway, back to James Tonkies. He was born in Liverpool in 1900. If you want to know more about the movements of the Tonkies families through the census returns please refer to an earlier post for his brother SAMUEL JOSEPH TONKIES.

James was born 3rd December 1900 on and baptised on 13th December 1900 in St James' Church.

source: ancestry.co.uk (image cropped by  me)

James was a baby in the 1901 census and a schoolboy the 1911 census.

The next record I have of James is for his death. He joined the Mercantile Marine (Merchant Navy) and was killed on 3rd October 1918 when his ship the SS Burutu sank after accidentally colliding with another British Merchant ship.

source: deaths at sea index 1918 at findmypast.co.uk

This record shows that he was an OS (Ordinary Seaman) and only 17 years old. The address given matches that on his brother's CWGC entry.

James Tonkies was not eligible for a CWGC entry as he was not killed as a direct result of enemy action.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO A PAGE ON THIS BLOG ABOUT THE SINKING OF THE SS BURUTU (opens in new window)

Many thanks

I have to say very many thanks go to Sotonmate from the 1914-1918 forum who not only told me that a book existed with rolls of honour for all the Elder Dempster ships lost in the Great War but then went and copied the relevant pages for me. I would not have been able to get this information  myself so quickly. Sotonmate, you are a star!

I have already posted a copy of the roll of honour for the SS Burutu (relevant because it contains J. Tonkies from the memorial) I was also provided with the chapter detailing the SS Burutu's battle with a submarine and then her accidental collision and sinking. I will post transcripts as soon as I get time. (see page list on the left)

I am confident that I will be able to use this information to add James Tonkies to the Roll of Honour at the Town Hall. It is such a shame that he was not eligible for the CWGC. At least now he will be commemorated in his home town, on the same Roll of Honour as his brother.

update

So, bit of an update while the kids are sleeping - I've been given a lead on James Tonkies by the wonderful forum members at rootschat.com and have plenty of internet fodder to trawl through about the SS BURUTU. I'm not sure whether he'll be eligible for a place in the Hall of Remembrance based on what I know so far but I'll give it a go.

I'm trying to spread my (scarce) spare time between this blog and the writing, but the blog and research keeps taking over!  The book is sort of planned at the moment but only about 5% written, I don't want to share too much here as I'm sure it'll change a million times before it's done.

I'm also a bit frustrated that this is a blog rather than a website, I'm aware that posts can disappear on these thing so I'm trying hard to organise it in a way that makes sense and of course use the tags to make sure posts are grouped together... the blog is searchable too so by the time I've got everything on here it should be pretty good. If anyone does visit I hope that they'll be able to see what it's all about.