We Will Remember Them

This page is the result of a visit to Cleethorpes Cemetery on a wet and windy Tuesday morning to photograph the graves of the six merchant seamen who died when the S.S. Kildale was bombed in the North Sea on 3rd February 1940.

Whilst there, I decided I might as well take photographs of the other military graves in the same section (gg), although not with any specific purpose in mind at the time. But looking at the photos later on, it occurred to me how easy it is to just wander past gravestones, giving them a cursory glance and then dismissing them from your mind. There is little to maintain your attention because, although military graves give name, rank, number and date of death, there is little information to go on,not even the person's full name.

I began to wonder who they were, the men (and woman) who were laid to rest in section gg more than seventy years ago. How and where did they die, where were they from and what lives did they lead before World War Two began?

Thanks to military, merchant navy, cemetery, census, birth, marriage and death records, online newspaper archives and scores of more-in-hope-than-expectation web searches, I have now begun to piece together the stories of the 48 men and 1 woman from the Army, Navy, Royal Air Force and Merchant Navy, even finding photos of a few of them. However some of the profiles are less detailed than others, so if you have any additional information, please get in touch, either by email to friendsofcleethorpesheritage@gmail.com or via our Facebook page.