More about John Sydie Smith

John 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 including her Master, on route from Bilbao for Heysham with a cargo of iron ore.

John S Smith was the son of Mr John and Mrs Catherine Smith of 1 North Tay Street, Dundee and was born in the city. He was the husband of Mrs Janet Menzies Smith (nee Alexander) of Towerwell House, Newburgh, Fife. 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 First Engineer William R Fleming of Dundee also died in the sinking. Both men are commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial in London.