Canadian Virtual War Memorial
John Lazarus
In memory of:
Second Radio Officer John Lazarus
September 17, 1940
North Atlantic
Military Service
29
Merchant Navy
Canadian Merchant Navy
S.S. City of Benares (Glasgow, Scotland) (164096)
Additional Information
December 24, 1910
Montréal, Quebec
His real surname was Lazarovitch and jewish, replaced by Lazarus after his father's Canadian naturalisation.
Son of Yeshia Lazarovitch (aka Charles Lazarus) and Pauline Schwartz of Montréal, Québec.
The City of Benares left Liverpool, England, on 13 September 1940 and headed for Quebec City, Quebec with 191 passengers. At 00:01 on 18 September, while sailing with convoy OB-213, she was torpedoed by U-48 and sank after 30 minutes 253 miles (407 km) west-south-west of Rockall, position 56°43'N/21°05'W. The British destroyer HMS Hurricane (H06) recovered 105 survivors and landed them at Greenock, Scotland. A further 42 survivors drifted for eight days before being rescued by the HMS Anthony (H40) and landed in the same place. The captain, the convoy commodore, 3 members of staff, 121 crew members and 134 passengers lost their lives.
Commemorated on Page 172 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance. Request a copy of this page. Download high resolution copy of this page.
Burial Information
HALIFAX MEMORIAL
Nova Scotia, Canada
Panel 17.
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:
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.
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