Sefton Edward Honeywood

An Engineman with H.M. Trawler Edwardian, Sefton died on 11 August 1940, aged 38. 

Sefton was born at Bungay on 7 June 1902, a son of Edward and Louisa Honeywood. In 1911 Sefton lived with his uncle and aunt, Samuel and Alice Honeywood, at Mile End, Bungay.   

On 15 June 1924 Sefton married Blanche Elizabeth Jane Thacker at All Saints’ Church, Pakefield. Sefton was a fisherman living at 58 Saint George’s Road and Blanche lived at 4 Flora Terrace, Pakefield. By 1928 they were living at 28 Lindsey Road, Grimsby, and later they lived at 391A, Grimsby Road, Cleethorpes, and then 52A High Street, Cleethorpes. By 1939 their home was a 4 Flora Terrace, Flora Road, Pakefield. 

In 1921 Sefton was the Stoker on the steam drifter Devon County, LT 526, at North Shields. In 1925 Sefton was the Second Engineman with the trawler Cassaway and, in 1926, joined the Heron. In 1927 he worked on the Abelia and, in 1926, joined the Runnel. From 1929 to 1939 he was an Engineman with the trawler Croxton and in 1939 he joined the Cedric. 

Sefton enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve on 2 February 1926, service number E.S. X.5655. He re-engaged in the later 1930s, number X 202, and again before the outbreak of World War Two. Sefton was called out for service on 25 August 1939 and drafted to H.M.S. Pembroke X, alter called Europa, at Lowestoft. He joined a trawler, F.R. Fevens (Sic), based at Larne on 21 September 1939 and subsequently was drafted to the minesweeping trawler Edwardian. 

On 11 August 1940 German aircraft attacked shipping in the Thames Estuary. The Edwardian, and another minesweeper the Peter Carey, fought the aircraft and together were credited with shooting down four aircraft. A bomb ruptured the Edwardian’s hull, and the trawler began taking on water but courageous work to fill the holes, by Engineman William Gray, meant that the Edwardian could reach shore and beach itself. During the attack Sefton and two other men were killed and three others wounded. 

Sefton’s body was landed at Ramsgate, and he is buried at Lowestoft.  

Sefton’s brother-in-law, William Thacker, died in 1939 in the loss of the trawler William Humphries. Another brother-in-law, Victor Thacker, had served with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and died in 1922.