Dunkirk civlilan seamen casualties

[sammiesworld]

I am trying to find the date of my maternal grandfather's death. I do not know the name of his ship or it's master.

His name was Frank Willoughby and was Ships Steward with one of the, (Now demised), shipping lines. During the war his home was in Rainham, Essex, Enland.

I know that his ship was sunk and all the crew were machine-gunned in the water.

How can I ressearch this? Is there an official online list or otherwise some Government office?

I would really welcome advice.

Sammi.

[Geoffers]

I am trying to find the date of my maternal grandfather's death. I do not know the name of his ship or it's master. His name was Frank Willoughby and was Ships Steward with one of the, (Now demised), shipping lines. During the war his home was in Rainham, Essex, Enland.
If you search the GRO Marine Deaths Index - available on 1837online (a pay per view site). You will find a reference:

Year - 1940
Name - Frank W WILLOUGHBY
Age - 60
Vessel - Abukir
Page - 95

Using this you can apply for a copy of the certificate via the GRO.

If you want to find out more about Operation Dynamo - records will be at The National Archives (TNA) at Kew - search their online catalogue
http://www.catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk/search.asp
to find what records are held. In field 1 enter 'Dunkirk' in the year field, enter 1940 and search on that. You'll probably get several classes of documents shown, relevant information will probably be in 'ADM', or 'WO' - you have to visit Kew to view the actual records.

You might also try using a search engine and simply enter the words 'Dunkirk' and 'Association' and check any websites that get shown. The associations may have other ideas as to where to look.

Geoffers
Charlbury, Oxfordshire

[Geoffers]

Further to my last posting. I just used a search engine for 'Abukir' and 'Dunkirk' and found t following website:

http://users.telenet.be/tree/db/histories/histories_a_c.html?en


Scroll down to Abukir SS (you want the one sunk 28 May 1940). If you click on the name of the ship, you get taken to this URL


http://users.telenet.be/tree/wreck/wreck-database/detail_query.html?filter=1174

which has some more detail and a photo.

Geoffers