More about William Robert Fleming

William has no known grave but is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial. He was serving aboard S.S. Lorle which was a 2,686 ton defensively-armed British Merchant Ship. On the 11th June 1918 when 12 miles SSW from the Lizard, Cornwall she was torpedoed without warning and sunk by German submarine UB-103. 19 lives lost includingthe Master. She was on route from Bilbao for Heysham with a cargo of iron ore at the time of her sinking.

William was the father of Pte David Wilson Fleming S/25611, 8th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, who was killed in action 28.07.1918.

William Robert Fleming   First Engineer   S.S. Lorie

FLEMING―At sea, on June 11th, through enemy action, William Robert Fleming, engineer, husband of Jeanie McWalter, 3 South Tay Street, Dundee.

Dundee Courier 8th July 1918

William R Fleming was the husband of Mrs Jeanie Clark Crockett Fleming (nee McWalter) of 3 South Tay Street, Dundee and was born in Melbourne, Australia. The Lorle was a 2,600 ton steam cargo ship completed in 1896. At the time of her loss she was owned by Alexander Shipping Company Ltd. She was sunk on 11 June 1918 by torpedo fired from the German submarine UB-103, about 12 miles South West of the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall. She was en route from Bilbao to Heysham with a cargo of ore. John Smith was one of nineteen crew lost and Third Engineer John S Smith of Newburgh, Fife also died in the sinking. William Fleming is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial in London.

Iain Stewart and Iain Birnie