ss Mohamed Ali El-Kebir The Casualties Graves of casualties from the Mohamed Ali el-Kebir can be found all along the Mayo, Sligo and Donegal seaboard. Using the Commonwealth War Graves Commission registers, and printouts of 7th/8th August 1940 deaths, it is possible to conclude that some 30 casualties from the ship are buried there in 18 different cemeteries and graveyards. These are as follows: · Co. Donegal Ardara Church of Ireland Cemetery Finner Church of Ireland Cemetery Glencolumbkille Church of Ireland Cemetery Kilcar Church of Ireland Cemetery Termon Old Graveyard, Dungloe Tory Island Cemetery Upper Fahan Church of Ireland Cemetery · Co. Mayo Achill (Holy Trinity) Church of Ireland Cemetery (please see Note below) Doohooma Catholic Graveyard Dugort Church of Ireland Cemetery, Achill Kilcommon Erris Church of Ireland Cemetery, Belmullet Rathfran Catholic Graveyard Note: This church has been sold to a French couple and as a result the graveyard gates were found to be locked when relatives of casualty George Ironside made a recent visit. Once the owners were advised that there were war graves in the churchyard, they provided assurance that they would keep access to the graves open.  If the gates were locked a key would be left with the local Garda office, just before the bridge across to the island. · Co. Sligo Ahamplish Church of Ireland Cemetery Carrigans Cemetery, Lissadil Easky (Roselea) Cemetery Kilmacsholgan, St. Mary Church of Ireland Cemetery Sligo Cemetery Others who must have died from injuries sustained while abandoning ship are buried elsewhere. Coroners’ Inquest reports and the Coast Watchers records show that the bodies came ashore in early September 1940. Lloyd’s List and Shipping Gazette reported on 25 September 1940 the finding of empty lifeboats from the Mohamed on 27th and 30th August, adrift off the Co. Mayo coast. Casualties from the ship with no known grave are commemorated on appropriate memorials elsewhere. 11 members of 706 General Construction Company, Royal Engineers are on the Dunkirk Memorial - Nord, because they had been part of the BEF and have no known grave. The six Indian seamen who died are commemorated on the Bombay/Chittagong 1939 - 1945 memorials. There is something of a puzzle about the total number of casualties from the ship. It has not been possible to obtain a full list. The official accounts refer to 120 lost. However, only some 70 can be identified from the War Graves registers. Further research is required to resolve the anomaly. Any suggestions of sources of information worth searching would be appreciated. It can be seen from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission registers that 13 of the casualties from the 706 General Construction Company, RE had homes in Aberdeenshire. Many men from the Aberdeenshire County Surveyor’s Department volunteered in response to an appeal from the Ministry of Transport on 5 January 1940. They were mainly road maintenance workers, and were able to quickly adapt to aerodrome and similar construction work. A list of those known to have died and where they are commemorated is set out in the Roll of Honour. The map attached shows the locations of the various graveyards and cemeteries where the casualties are buried, and also the site of where the Captain Thomson was first washed ashore. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to view the map. It can be downloaded free from the internet by clicking on to this link.) Sapper William Fullerton The following piece appeared in the Sunday Observer on 8th November 1998, written by Henry McDonald.
It lies in the most isolated British war grave in the Northern Hemisphere, and for more than half a century there have been no poppies, no last post and no recitations of for the fallen at his resting place. Sapper William Fullerton has until now been the forgotten soldier buried on a far flung Atlantic island. On 7 August 1940 his body washed up on the shore of Tory Island, off the Donegal Coast. Fifty eight years later a wreath of poppies has been laid on the spot where the 26 year old Royal Engineer was buried at the height of the Nazi U–boat campaign aimed at starving Britain into submission. Phillip Dougan, who has lived on the Island all his life was 16 when Fullerton’s body was found, after his ship was sunk by a U–boat. Dougan recalled seeing the soldier’s corpse: ‘He was a big fellow, stout and blond. The whole island turned out for his funeral. Although he had no identification papers on him I recall he had seven pennies in his pocket.’ Asked what happened to the pennies Dougal smiled and said: ‘In those days pennies were very scarce. I think someone kept them.’ Tony Crowe, a historian from Derry who co–founded a cross border initiative to commemorate the Irish fallen of the First World War, braved the gales to sail to Tory last week, to remember Fullerton where he lies beside cliffs overlooking the ocean. Standing at the cliff edge under the shadow of the lighthouse, Crowe laid a poppy wreath on the grave and recited the Lord’s prayer. The wreath was tossed like a frisbee into the ocean below. ‘This has to be the loneliest British war grave in Europe. It would be wrong he should be a forgotten soldier while thousands are commemorated on Poppy Day,’ Crowe said. The location of the grave is ironic given that Tory Island has long standing connections to Irish republicanism. In 1884 the islanders resisted attempts by a British landlord to evict them by storming the lighthouse and directing a British naval ship, the Wasp, onto the rocks. More than 40 marines sent to enforce the landlord’s ruling drowned. Roger Casement, the nationalist hero hanged by the British for drumming up German military support for a republican uprising, stayed on the island and planned to use Tory for passing German arms to Irish rebels in 1916. Pat Doohan, owner of the island hotel, said there were few people who could remember the day Fullerton’s body came ashore. ‘There was talk that one of his relatives came here just after the war. Someone from the British forces erected the headstone where he lies, but no one can remember where his people came from. No one has ever been in touch with them. He is a mystery man.
The article is accompanied by a picture of the headstone. In September 2001 Ulster TV presenter Paul Clark made a 30 minute programme, to be broadcast on the following Remembrance Sunday, about the first visit by members of Sapper Fullerton's family to his grave on Tory Island. Stoker Jack Street The following article is due to be published by the Navy New later this year:
NAVY NEWS HELPS TO FIND WAR GRAVE Thanks to Navy News, the Friends of the National Maritime Museum (NMM), the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) and the Royal British Legion Scotland (RBLS), the unmarked grave of a World War II naval casualty has had a CWGC headstone placed on it after 63 years. Stoker Jack Street was abroad the ss Mohamed Ali el Kebir in August 1940 bound for Gibraltar and his new ship HMS Foxhound. At about 20.00 hours on 8 August the Mohamed, when 250 miles West of Malin, was hit by a torpedo from U-38, and sink within 2 hours. The troopship was carrying some 860 passengers and crew, and off these 766 were rescued by the escorting destroyer HMS Griffin, and landed at Greenock. The bodies of 27 casualties washed ashore several weeks later in Counties Donegal, Sligo and Mayo, and are buried locally. The rest are commemorated on appropriate CWGC memorials as having no known grave. Among these was Jack Street , whose name appears on the Chatham War Memorial. Jack’s niece, Mrs Maureen Bending of Chelmsford, was researching her family history, and knowing of her uncle’s naval connection advertised in the Navy New for information. The Friends of the NMM were able to tell her that the loss of the ship had been researched by Dick White of Lancaster who she contacted. In examining the research information it was found that Mr James McKay of Aberdeen, a survivor of the sinking related the following: ‘I was a Royal Navy stoker going out to join HMS Foxhound in the Mediterranean. Following the torpedo explosion the RN and Royal Marine men manned the derricks to help launch the lifeboats.’ Mr McKay and his friend Jack Street were lowering a boat but when it reached the main deck soldiers started jumping in. Jack put his foot on the rope to given himself more purchase, but he was throws over the davits and landed back on the deck with his leg torn off below the knee. They managed to get into a lifeboat and away from the ship. At daybreak they were rescued by HMS Griffin, which sailed for Greenock. Mr McKay remembers that a bell rang just as they entered the Clyde, and his friend died. HMS Griffin’s Medical Officer’s report on the incident (G.J. Walley Surgeon Lt RN – PRO ADM/101 564) recorded ‘ Only one death occurred – a naval rating, name unknown (body transferred to Naval Authorities, Greenock) from multiple injuries of tibia, femur, pelvis and humerus’. Thus it seemed probable that Stoker Street’s body had been landed at Greenock and could have been buried locally. Mrs Bending was able to confirm with the MoD that Jack was indeed buried in Greenock Cemetery. With this information the Commonwealth War Graves Commission agreed to erect a headstone on the grave. On 10 June 2003 at a ceremony organised by Mary Peat, Secretary of the Glasgow and Western Counties Area RBLS, the headstone was dedicated by naval chaplain David Wylie of HMS Neptune, together win a RBLS Colour Party, sea cadets, relatives, friends and townspeople of Greenock. A piper played a lament. 63 years after the tragedy Stoker Jack Street’s body can rest in piece.
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