Deck Hand Charles Thomas H Withey
S.S. Countess of Mar, Royal Naval Reserve
Killed in Action
Date of Birth: 4 April 1892
Place of Birth: Custom House, West Ham, Essex
Date of Death: 4 August 1917 aged 26
Buried: Remembered on Tower Hill Memorial, Plymouth Naval Memorial and Shaldon War Memorial
Awarded the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal
Deck Hand Charles (Chas) Thomas H Withey, aged 26.
Charles was born 4 April 1892 at Custom House, West Ham, Essex, son of William Henry Withey, who died in 1897 at sea, and Ellen Gertrude, (née Hooper) of Exmouth.
In 1901 Charles was at the Merchant Seaman's Orphan Asylum in Essex together with his older brother, William Henry.
Chas's younger brothers, Sidney Alfred and Robert Henry were living in Shaldon, assisting their mother with the grocery shop.
No further record has been found for Charles Withey, Official Number Port Division: 2494SD (Dev), until notification of his death on 4 August 1917 as direct result of enemy action.
He was serving aboard SS Countess of Mar when she was torpedoed and sunk in the Bay of Biscay with a loss of twenty lives.
August 1917
COUNTESS OF MAR, 2,234grt, defensively-armed, 4 August 1917, 55 miles N ¼ E from Bayonne, torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine, 20 lives lost including Master
Remembered on Tower Hill Memorial, Plymouth Naval Memorial and Shaldon War Memorial.
Ralph's mother (standing on the left) with the Shaldon Lace-making School
Chas's brother Private Sidney Alfred Whiteny died on active service on the battlefields of France 23 April 1917.
Ellen Withey tragically received the news of the loss of two of her sons within such a very short time.
Ellen was known in the village as a member of the Shaldon Lace Making School.
