Naval casualties on St James' Memorial

The table below details the men on the St James Memorial who died serving with the Merchant Navy, the Royal Navy or the Naval Reserve. The information given is the service they were in, their service number (if applicable) the ship or base they were on when they died and ther date of death.

Name	Surname		Service number	Ship/base	Date of death
Herbert Loyd	Hill	Merchant Navy		SS ARABIC	19/08/1915
Samuel J	Tonkies	Merchant Navy		SS ARTIST	27/01/1917
Owen	Owen	Merchant Navy		SS STUART PRINCE	22/03/1917
William	Elliott	Merchant Navy		SS HUNTSTRICK	08/06/1917
Ernest C	Benn	Merchant Navy		SS OLYMPIC	20/03/1918
James	Tonkies	Merchant Navy		SS BURUTU	03/10/1918
Richard W	Longmaid	Merchant Navy Reserve	763081	HMS ALCANTARA	29/02/1916
William	Beattie	Royal Navy	SS/107737	HOWE BN	04/06/1915
Thomas H	Bramwell	Royal Navy	233784	HMS INVINCIBLE	31/05/1916
James	Wilding	Royal Navy	SS/110409	HMS INDEFATIGABLE	31/05/1916
Matthew	Chisam	Royal Naval Reserve	2062D	HMS PRESIDENT III	24/09/1917

Trimmer Richard Longmaid 763081

There was only one result for R W Longmaid in the CWGC database and he was from Liverpool.

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Richard William Longmaid was born in Liverpool on 7th Dec 1894 and christened on 18th Feb 1895. His parents were Richard Henry Augustus and Sarah Anne Longmaid of 15 Emerson Street.

image source: parish records collection ancestry.co.uk

The 1901 census shows that William's father was a seaman (merchant service) and was born in Cornwall. Richard was the second of 4 children with an older sister Sarah E J(aged 7) and younger siblings Louise H (3) and Edith E (1). The family were living at 17 Emerson Street.

The 1911 census shows that the family were living at 31 Penrith St. Richard Senior was still working as a mariner aged 63. Richard Junior (aged 16) was a cabin boy, his sister Sarah (aged 17) was a tailoress.

Richard W Longmaid's service papers show that on 8th Jan 1915 he enlisted with the territorial force and was given the rank of Gunner in the 1st West Lancs Brigade RFA regimental number 1551.

His medical examination shows that Richard Longmaid was 20 years old,

5feet 9 inches tall and had good physical development.

Eyesight in his left eye was poor and in his right eye was fair.

On 31st August 1915 after 236 days of service, he was discharged under King's Regulation 392 para XVI (no longer physically fit for war  service)

After his discharge from the army Richard served with the Merchant Navy. He entered the Merchant Marine Reserve (whereby a number of officers and men of the Merchant Marine agreed to serve with the Royal Navy under the terms of T.124 agreements, which made them subject to Naval discipline while generally retaining their Merchant Marine rates of pay and other conditions.) 
The medal roll below records his medal entitlement (source: national archives)



Tr = trimmer ST = star, V= victory B=British Mr=how the medal was  issued (Mother?) I.C etc = Index casualty number

Richard died aged 21 on 29/2/1916 when his ship the H.M.S. Alcantara was sunk.
The newspaper report below is from the London Times 27/3/1916. Richard is listed under 'specially entered Mercantile crew'

click here to open the Wikipedia account of the battle

Description	English: HMS Alcantara engages the German raider Grief on 29 February 1916, in the North Sea. Both ships sank.
Date	10 December 2012, 17:11:22
Source	The Times History and Encyclopaedia of the War Vol XXI, London 1920 (p.127) via archive.org
Author	Unknown artist

click here to see the CWGC entry for Richard William Longmaid

 The information in the CWGC database shows that his sevice number was 763081, confirms that he was the son of Richard and Sarah A Longmaid of 31 Penrith St, Liverpool and shows that his name can be found on Panel 20 of the Plymouth Naval Memorial.

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)

Samuel J Tonkies

This record was all a bit of a puzzle. Although I could find Samuel Joseph Tonkies in the census records, there was no listing for Samuel J Tonkies in the ancestry.co.uk military database, nor in the CWGC database.  There was however a G J Tonkies on the CWGC database whose 'other information' showed that he was the son of Mary Jane Tonkies of Liverpool. This matched the census records I had found for Samuel. As he didn't have a brother with the initials G.J. I assumed that the record was in fact for him and had somehow been mis-transcribed as G.

I tried to confirm this with the merchant seaman records on the national archives online but the only record I could find was for John Edward Tonkies (a brother of S.J.)

I then got in touch with an ancestry member whose wife is a descendant of the Tonkies family and they confirmed that the G.J. Tonkies record was Samuel. They didn't know why his name was wrong or why it hadn't been corrected.

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Samuel Joseph Tonkies was born on 25th April 1895. He was bptised on 5th June 1895 in St Gabriel, Toxteth. The baptism record (below) shows that his parents were John Edward and Mary Jane Tonkies. They lived at 21 Guest Street, Toxteth and John Edward's occupation was Engine Driver.

source:ancestry.co.uk

The 1901 census return shows the Tonkies family lived at 24 Guest Street,  John Edward (head of the household) was an engine driver (stationary) Samuel J was 5 years old and the 5th of 7 children.

source:ancestry.co.uk

In the 1911 census return the family were living at 10 Rhyl Street, Toxteth. The number of children seems to have been misunderstood as it says 7 born, 2 died and 5 living. However from census returns, birth and baptism records I can identify a total of 10 children, 2 of whom died.
Other details from the census return show that Samuel Joseph Tonkies was 16 and working as a plumber's labourer.
Just to confuse matters further, Ancestry.co.uk has for some reason got this census return listed twice with small differences in transcription (eg John Edward's place of birth is Salford in one, Liverpool in the other)

source:ancestry.co.uk

The CWGC record for Samuel is under the name G.J. Tonkies but I am sure it is the right man as it gives his mother's name as Mary Jane. There is not another Mary Jane Tonkies in the census returns or birth records, there is also no G.J. Tonkies.

click here to see the CWGC entry for G.J. Tonkies

Samuel was in the Mercantile Marine (Merchant Navy) but his death was eligible for CWGC status because he was killed as a direct result of enemy action.

The death at sea index (below) also has the name G.J. Tonkies. These sources show that Samuel was a fireman and trimmer on the SS Artist which was sunk by enemy on 27th Jan 1917. Samuel was 'supposed drowned.'

source: deaths at sea index findmypast.co.uk 

CLICK HERE TO GO TO A POST ON THIS BLOG WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE SINKING OF THE SS ARTIST (opens in new window)

CLICK HERE TO GO TO A POST ON THIS BLOG CONTAINING THE TEXT OF  WARTIME PAMPHLET ABOUT THE SINKING OF THE SS ARTIST (opens in new window)

Ernest Charles Benn

Ernest Charles Benn - I have identified this person through the census records, he was the only Ernest C Benn in Liverpool and was born in 1888 so he is of the right age.

He was born on the 29th May 1888 to William and Elizabeth Benn. His christening record for 13th March 1889 only shows his first name of Ernest. It shows that his father was a shipwright and they lived on Enid St.

baptism record, image source: Ancestry.co.uk

1891 Census - 35 Enid Street
William Benn, head, married, 38, Shipwright, born Liverpool
Elizabeth, wife, married, 37, no occupation, Launceston Cornwall
William T Benn, son, 15, pawnbroker assistant, Liverpool
Elizabeth S Benn, daughter, 9, Scholar, Liverpool
Harry Benn, son,5, Scholar, Liverpool *
Ernest C Benn, son, 3, no occupation, Liverpool

1891 census Image source: Ancestry.co.uk

1901 Census - 35 Enid Street (transcribed on Ancestry.co.uk as Bernn)
William Benn head, married, 58, carpenter shipwright, Liverpool
Elizabeth Benn, wife, married, 49, no occupation, Liverpool
Elizabeth S Benn, daughter, single, 18, no occupation, Liverpool
Henry Benn, son, 14, no occupation, Liverpool * this is Harry from the 1901 census
Ernest Chas Benn, son, single, 12, no occupation, Liverpool
Mabel Benn, daughter, single, 9, no occupation, Liverpool
Nellie Benn, daughter, single, 7, no occupation, Liverpool

1901 census Image source: Ancestry.co.uk

1911 Census - 36 Tavistock Street
Eliabeth Benn, head, widow, 55, housekeeper, own accont, at home,, Launceton (Plymouth) British (the information about number of children was filled in by mistake. It has been crossed out but still clearly shows that Elizabeth had 7 children, 2 of whom have died.)
Ernest Charles Benn, son, single, 22, Coal dealer, employer, Liverpool, British
Nellie Benn, daughter, single, 17, dress maker, worker, Liverpool

1911 census Image source: Ancestry.co.uk

So, I have him tracked down in civilian life, but his wartime experience seems to be more elusive.

The CWGC has one entry for E.Benn, click her to see this entry in the CWGC database. (opens in new window)


The collection of medal cards has one Ernest C Benn but his number and regiment do not match the CWGC E Benn, also the card does not record his death (although they don't always)

*****UPDATE*****

Again, my progress with this search has been made with the help of various members of RootsChat.com WW1 board.

There was a marine death index for Benn, no first name, died 1918 whilst serving on the Olympic.

I checked the marine BMDs and found that this was Harry Benn, died 20th March 1918 on the Olympic of accidental drowning. His home address was 36 Tavistock Street - so he was the brother of our Ernest C Benn...

or was he?

I was pointed in the direction of a family grave in Toxteth Cemetery which bears the inscription

In loving memory of
our dear mother
Elizabeth BENN,
died 6th Jan. 1927, aged 72 years.
 Also Ernest BENN,
who was lost at sea 20th March 1918,
aged 28 years.
Also Margaret BENN,
died 26th Dec. 1911, aged 28 years.
*Peace, perfect peace.*
In loving memory of
 my dear husband
Harry BENN,
died 18th April 1931, aged 44 years.
*He giveth His beloved sleep.*

**************UPDATE*************
I found the inscription for the gravestone on the excellent database on this site:
http://www.toxtethparkcemeteryinscriptions.co.uk
and then got the further info below from this site:
http://www.toxtethparkcemetery.co.uk

 

Surname	Forename	Age	Rank	Address	Buried
BENN	Margaret	28 years	Wife	42a Parkfield Road	31 December 1911
BENN	Elizabeth	72 years	Widow	34 Dingle Lane Toxteth Park	10 January 1927
BENN	Henry	44 years	Boatsman	36 Tavistock Street Toxteth Park	23 April 1931
HANRAHAN	Margaret Ann	70 years	-	142 Vine Street Liverpool	21 September 1933

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So, the record on the marine deaths register should be Ernest, not Harry? This would explain why he hasn't got a war grave if he was in the Mercantile Marine accidental drowning wouldn't have qualified even when he was on a troopship.

Checking the records shows that Harry Benn was married in 1910 to Margaret, widowed in 1911 (see the gravestone inscription) then served in the Mercantile Marine and survived the war. He remarried to Catherine Connelly in 1918 at which time his occupation was 'quartermaster' and he signed his name as both Henry and Harry.

I can only assume that the brother's records were mixed up when Ernest died, I have found a Mercantile Marine ID Card for Harry which has a photo of him (below) but I have yet to find one for Ernest.

Harry Benn, taken from his MM ID Card.
source: findmypast.co.uk