Able Seaman Francis Charles BROCKLEHURST.
Merchant Navy M.V. Empire Light (Liverpool).
7 Mar 1943 aged 51.
Tower Hill Memorial, Panel 43.
Francis was the eldest of William and Jane Brocklehursts two sons. He married Esther Jones on 5 Dec 1918 at the Houghton Memorial Church in Ancoats
At 18:20 hours on 7 Mar 1943 Type VIIC U-638 (Kapitänleutnant Hinrich-Oscar Bernbeck) attacked a straggler from convoy ON-168 in bad weather southwest of Cape Farewell. Bernbeck thought that he had missed, but the Empire Light (Master A.L. Lewis) was damaged and abandoned. 39 crew members and six gunners were lost. The master, three crew members and one gunner were picked up by H.M.S. Beverley and landed at St. John’s, Newfoundland.
At 22.12 hours on 12 March, another Type VIIC U-468 (Oberleutnant Klemens Schamong) sank the abandoned Empire Light with two coups de grâce.
Tower Hill Memorial (photo from minube)
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