More about Stewart Henderson

There is no S. Henderson listed on the crew list for the Hospital ship Rohilla at the time of her loss. Neither is there any S. Henderson Listed on the C.W.G.C. website as serving and died  on the Rohilla. There is also no S. Henderson listed on the entire C.W.G.C. website as having died on 30 October 1914.

Stewart Henderson   Fireman & Trimmer   H.M.H.S. Rohilla

SHIPWRECKED.

Dundee Seaman on Doomed Hospital Ship.

Stewart Henderson (missing). Henderson who was the oldest of the Dundee detachment, is married, but has no family.

Experienced Seaman.

Stewart Henderson has been a seaman for forty years.  He is a powerful swimmer, and his folks believe that if he had any chance at all he is safe.

Dundee Courier 31st October 1914

HENDERSON^___In memory of my husband, Stewart Henderson, fireman, who lost his life on the hospital ship Rohilla, at Whitby, on 31st October 1914. – Inserted by his sorrowing wife Alice Henderson, No 37 Gellatly Street, Dundee.

Dundee People’s Journal 30th October 1915

Stewart Henderson was the husband of Alice (Elsie) McLaren, 37 Gellatly Street, Dundee. The Hospital Ship Rohilla was on passage from Scapa Flow to Dunkirk and, earlier had put into Aberdeen to land Midshipman Prince Albert, the future King George VI, for an operation to remove his appendix. It is reported that she called at South Queensferry and then Tynemouth and was wrecked off Whitby on the night of 30 October 1914. Despite desperate efforts from those ashore and lifeboat crews the ship broke up and, of the 229 men and women onboard, only 146 were saved. Five local men were lost. Stewart Henderson is not commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial or by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, probably because the loss was accidental and not caused by enemy action. S Henderson is commemorated in the Dundee City Roll of Honour and on the Whitby Rohilla Memorial.

Iain Stewart and Iain Birnie