William Arthur Brown

A Fifth Engineer Officer with S.S. Fort Bellingham (London), William died on 26th of January 1944 aged 22. 

William was born at Lowestoft on 15 November 1921, a son of Oliver and Martha Hannah Brown of Lowestoft Suffolk. He was baptised at Saint John’s Church on 2 December 1921 and his family lived at 54 Raglan Street. By 1939 they were living at 7 Summer Road and William was an engineer’s apprentice.

Just after midnight on 26 January 1944 German submarine U-360 fired three torpedoes at convoy JW-56A in the Barents Sea, north of North Cape. One torpedo hit the S. S. Fort Bellingham which fell behind the convoy. German submarine U-957 then torpedoed the ship which sank with the loss of 37 men including William.