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In memory of:

Trimmer Kenneth W. Wilson

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Merchant Navy emblem

Military service

Rank: Trimmer
Force: Merchant Navy
Unit/Regiment: Canadian Merchant Navy
Division: S.S. Gandia (Antwerp, Belgium) (124461)
Death: January 22, 1942 North Atlantic

Burial/memorial information

HALIFAX MEMORIAL
Grave reference: Panel 22.
Additional information
On 22 January 1942, in heavy weather and with the ship rolling violently, at around 5:20 pm, the ship suffered a violent jolt followed by a huge 0explosion on the port side, as she was hit by a torpedo fired by the German submarine U-135. The Gandia immediately began to list and sink by the stern 420 miles (675 km) east of Cape Race, Newfoundland, position 45°00'N/41°00'W. Captain Potie gave the order to abandon ship and the crew began lowering the lifeboats. Bad weather considerably hampered this action and the lifeboats were violently knocked against the ship's sides. Lifeboats number 1 and 3, located on the side of the ship exposed to the weather, broke up and threw their occupants and provisions into the sea. The Gandia sank within ten minutes, going down vertically by the stern. After 14 days at sea, seven survivors of the 18 sailors on board lifeboat 2 were rescued on 5 February by the American destroyer USS Bernadou (DD-153) and landed in Reykjavik, Iceland. After 26 days adrift, 28 sailors from lifeboat 4 were rescued by the Portuguese trawler Joao Corte Real, position 46°30'N/46°56'W, and brought to Oporto, Portugal, on 26 February, the others having died. The attack killed 42 crew members and 23 others perished at sea while awaiting rescue. The date of Davis' death is therefore approximate.

Related media

Second World War (1939 – 1945)

In the Books of Remembrance

Commemorated on:

Page 250 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance.
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HALIFAX MEMORIAL Nova Scotia, Canada

The HALIFAX MEMORIAL in Nova Scotia's capital, erected in Point Pleasant Park, is one of the few tangible reminders of the men who died at sea. Twenty-four ships were lost by the Royal Canadian Navy in the Second World War and nearly 2,000 members of the RCN lost their lives.

This Memorial was erected by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and was unveiled in November 1967 with naval ceremony by H.P. MacKeen, Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, in the presence of R. Teillet, then Minister of Veterans Affairs.

The monument is a great granite Cross of Sacrifice over 12 metres high, clearly visible to all ships approaching Halifax. The cross is mounted on a large podium bearing 23 bronze panels upon which are inscribed the names of over 3,000 Canadian men and women who were buried at sea.

The dedicatory inscription, in French and English, reads as follows:

1914-1939
1918-1945
IN THE HONOUR OF
THE MEN AND WOMEN
OF THE NAVY
ARMY AND MERCHANT NAVY
OF CANADA
WHOSE NAMES
ARE INSCRIBED HERE
THEIR GRAVES ARE UNKNOWN
BUT THEIR MEMORY
SHALL ENDURE.

On June 19, 2003, the Government of Canada designated September 3rd of each year as a day to acknowledge the contribution of Merchant Navy Veterans.

For more information, visit Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

 

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