大象传媒

JAMES HENRY WEALE was born 1909 in Liverpool and it was told through the family that he died at sea during WW2 in the Merchant Navy. The story was the the ship was torpedoed but that he did escape and got into a life boat, but then the life boat was tipped over and all were lost. He is not mentioned in War Deaths, Deaths at Sea or in the ordinary death registered.
When WW2 broke out he returned to England from Canada where he was living, and joined the Merchant Navy. The Merchant Navy records at the National Archives just gave his name, date of birth, rank and some journeys undertaken with various ships. Finding the crew lists for the ships mentioned show his name but no mention of death or disaster.
James Weale appears on the War Memorial in Southport Lancs where he lived with his family in his early life. However no detail was given. The Liverpool Council have a Book of Remembrance and this showed just his name and the ship "Pegasus" - a lead at last....
At the National Archives thee was quite a bit on the Pegasus and on the documents it mentioned that the Pegasus was torpedoed in September 1941 and that all the crew managed to scramble into 2 lifeboat. One of the lifeboats was rescured but the other was found empty and upside down. The Captain reported that the Pegasus was torpedoed twice, the first one caused quite a lot of damage and the crew left the ship, but then she was torpedoed again and she sank. Not satisfied with this the Uboat the U94 came to the surface and machine gunned the crew that had managed to get into the life boats. The life boat that was lost was perhaps hit by gunshot or maybe just tipped over in the rough seas. This all confirmed the family's story. But none of the records and the Captains report on the loss of the Pegasus mentioned the names of the crew.
With hope dwindling fast a letter was sent to the Greek Genealogical Society in Athens with in fact llittle hope of a response - but lo and behold there appeared a wonderful Captains report on the sinking of the Pegasus on 15 September 1941 in Greek, but nevertheless contained a list of all the crew that were lost and ll the crew that surved and JAMES HENRY WEALE was among the "lost". At last a confirmation of his demise.
The Merchant Navy is quite well-known to be one of the most difficult services to research and it really has been an exercise in hard work and patience.
Perhaps his death can now be recognised here in England in some form - it is difficult to accept that his death as gone unrecognised in the record system.

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