More about John Williams

M.F.A. Eleanor was torpedoed and sunk by German Submarine UB 57 on 12/02/1918 off St Catherines Point with the loss of 34 lives. She was carrying a cargo of 1,434 mines and 200 depth charges. The original Dundee Roll of Honour has John Listed as a Petty Officer but the only John Williams on board at the time of the sinking was a  John Williams, Shipwright 2nd class.

John Williams   M/22060   Royal Navy

WILLIAMS—Lost at sea, on Feb. 12, aged 27 John the dearly beloved and youngest son of John and Jessie Williams, of 37 Albert Terrace, Wallsend-on-Tyne, late of Dundee. – Inserted by his father and mother, John and Jessie Williams.

Dundee People’s Journal 23rd February 1918

John Williams was born in Dundee and was the son of Mr John and Mrs Jessie Williams of 17 Laburnum Avenue, Wallsend and 6 Greendykes Road, Dundee. He volunteered to join the Royal Marines in April 1915 as a Private (3858 S) and served in Gallipoli in the Royal Naval Division, probably as Medical Assistant. In August 1916 he transferred to the Royal Navy as a Shipwright. After serving at HMS Pembroke, the Naval Barracks at Chatham he was drafted to the Mercantile Fleet Auxiliary Eleanor, a mine and depth charge transport. The Eleanor was torpedoed at about 3 in the morning by the German submarine UB-57 nine miles South West of St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight whilst on passage from Immingham to Malta via Falmouth with a cargo of mines and explosives on February 12th 1918. The ship sank almost immediately after a second explosion and the captain and 35 others were killed. There was one survivor who was picked up some hours later. John Williams is named on the Chatham Naval Memorial in Kent. The Peoples Journal of 9 March 1918 has a report and a photograph of him.