George Albert Farman

An Able Seaman with S.S. Thurston (West Hartlepool), George died on 4th of March 1940 aged 32. 

George was born at Lowestoft on 13 January 1906, a son of John Henry and Eunice Farman. By 1911 George’s mother had died and George, and his father, lived with George’s grandmother Elizabeth Knight at 5 Ashby Road. In 1921 his family lived at 21 Beckham Road, and by 1939 at 35 Avondale Road. 

In 1922 George was tried for breaking and entering and theft. He was found guilty and sentenced to go to a borstal for three years. George then made a career in the Merchant Navy, first going to sea around 1924.   

On 27 August 1938 George married Mary Elizabeth Page at Saint Thomas’ Church, Kirkby in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. In 1940 Mary lived at 33 Oxford Street, East Kirkby, Nottinghamshire.

In the late 1930s George served on a number of cargo ships: the Baltraffic from 1 February 1937; the Anthea from 28 April 1937; the Thorpeness from 27 December 1937; the Welcombe from 30 October 1939; and he joined the Thurston on 30 December 1939.

Just after midnight on 4 March 1940 the Thurston collided with the French cargo ship S.N.A.1 while sailing in the Bristol Channel off the north coast of Cornwall. All of the crew of the French ship were rescued by the Thurston. Just a few hours later, when off Trevise Head, the Thurston was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-29. Thirty-four of the Thurston’s crew, including George, were killed, as were thirty of the crew of the S.N.A.1. There were only four survivors from the two crews.