William Thomas Jones, SS Missanabie

William Thomas Jones, Able Seaman, Mercantile Marine, SS Missanabie. Lost at sea due to enemy action, age 23, on 9 September 1918.

SS Missanabie was a 12,469 ton, defensively-armed British Passenger Liner of the Canadian Pacific Line built in 1914 by Barclay Curle & Company Glasgow, Yard No 510. On the 9 September 1918, when en route from Liverpool for New York, she was torpedoed by German submarine UB-87 when 52 miles S by E ½ E from Daunts Rock, Ireland. 45 lives lost. The ship had acted as a troop transport and completed many crossings of the Atlantic carrying Canadian troops to join the war effort.He was born at Bootle, Lancashire on 22 January 1895 and baptised at St. Mary's Chapel on 14 April 1895. He was the son of Ellen Jones and the late John Jones. In 1911 William resided at 135 Benedict Street, Bootle, aged 16 and was employed as a Solicitor's Office Boy. He was living with his mother, Eleanor Slack (36) (formally Jones, nee Bouch) and her husband of 3 years, Charles Laurence Slack (30) a Dock Labourer, originating from Nottingham. Also at the house were John Bouch Jones (17), nephew, employed as a Seaman and Elena Slack (8), daughter.

Commemorated on Tower Memorial and also on the Bootle Civic Memorial.

SS Missanabie - Photo from http://www.wrecksite.eu