Survivors that died in World Wars

[Philip Hind]

Check last category of crew records in the CD-Rom, Seamen's Registration docs (c.1919-21). Off the top of my head I think it's Ref: BT 350.

 

[Andrew Williams]

Thanks Philip, I shall certain know where to come next time!

Cheers-Andrew.

 

[Kendra Bell]

As far as any record of Daniel Buckley goes, it appears he just vanished into thin air. It's kind of driving me crazy! I am also struggling with finding any forms of research. I don't know where to start. Any ideas?

 

[Bob Godfrey]

Kendra, if what you want is info about how Buckley died - according to Senan Molony (The Irish Aboard Titanic) he volunteered for wartime service with the US 165th Infantry Division in France, and was shot dead on October 15 1918, just a few weeks before the war ended. His body was eventually re-interred at Kingwilliamstown, County Cork, near his birthplace.

 

[Kendra Bell]

Thanks for the reply. Anything about descendants? Descendants of relatives? I know about his mother, but not siblings, or anything else.

 

[Bob Godfrey]

No descendants. Parents Daniel (a baker by trade) and Abigail. Siblings Mary Ellen and John. You'd probably need to do your own research to trace the siblings' family lines forward, and official records in Ireland are hard to access from a distance.

 

[Jay Roches]

George Terrill Thresher, Fireman

Information about George Terrill Thresher, Fireman on Titanic, who died November 18, 1939 when his ship, the 500-ton Parkhill, was torpedoed by the German U-18. All hands, nine in total, were lost.

Data about the Parkhill and its sinking
Crew List for the Parkhill
Crew page for George Thresher

The Parkhill left Blyth, England (near Sunderland) on November 17 with a cargo of 449 tons of coal, headed to Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. At 8:45 PM on November 18th, the U-18 fired a first torpedo which missed the ship. At 9:16 PM, he fired a second torpedo which impacted the Parkhill. The British steamer sank immediately after a large explosion.

Thresher, age 52, was serving as trimmer and fireman aboard the Parkhill, the same job he performed aboard Titanic. He was the oldest of the 9 men aboard the Parkhill; the chief engineer, James Leworthy, was 50 and the master, Eric Charles Middleton, was 31.

The U-18 was a Type IIB boat under the command of Kapitänleutnant Max-Hermann Bauer, born 1912, who had held command of U-18 since November 1937. (The Type IIB was a small 'coastal' boat with 5 torpedoes and 24 men aboard.) It had left Kiel, Germany, on November 15, 1939, on its fourth war patrol. The Parkhill was the first ship it sank. The G7e (also known as T2) torpedoes used were electrically powered and left no wake.

On his return to Kiel, Nov. 23, Bauer was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class and the 1939 U-Boat War Medal. He was put in command of U-50, a larger Type VIIB boat. He died, along with all 44 of the U-50's crew, on April 6, 1940 when the U-50 struck a British mine in the North Sea. The U-50 sank four ships, claiming 53 lives and 16,000 GRT of shipping. The U-18 continued in service and was eventually scuttled at the port of Constanza on the Black Sea in 1944.

During WW2, the Orkneys were strategically important because of the naval base at Scapa Flow. The town of Kirkwall, the largest town, was Parkhill's destination. Because of the small amount of coal it had on board (500 tons) and because naval vessels were mostly oil-powered, it seems most likely (but this is just speculation) that Parkhill's cargo was meant to be domestic coal for heating and cooking in the first winter of the war.

All this information is from U-Boat.Net.
- J

 

[Arun Vajpey]

After settling in America for some years, Titanic Survivor Rosa Pinksy reportedly returned to her native Poland later in life and is believed to have been killed during the Nazi Holocaust there in the 1940s. If true, that's really sad.

 

[Steven Christian]

She was in poor health and was considered old for that time in her 60's. Its possible she died of other causes. BUT: Jewish, eastern europe, 1940's (especially post Wannasee) the odds are pretty high she was a victim of the nazi atrocities. Yes, indeed sad all the way around.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

In her biography here on ET, they conjecture that she was 'killed' in 1943. That could have been during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of that year.

I am going to try and do some research on Rosa Pinksy's life and death. I did not even know about her till a few days ago but now that I do, I am fascinated (I suppose in a rather morbid sort of way). It will not be easy finding out about her but I'll try.

 

[Steven Christian]

I've read that several researchers have tried to find out about what happened to her after she went back to russia (occupied Poland) but they have all lost track of her after that. Around 1942 or so. I hope you can find more. Good luck on your research.

 

[Arun Vajpey]

On ET biography, some researcher names are mentioned. Hermann Soldener is German and might have access to information about occupied Poland in the 1940s. Likewise, Nikolay Ganzha sounds Polish and he might have some 'inside' information about what happened to Rosa Pinsky.

She was a Polish-American at the time of the Titanic disaster and so I assume that she retained that American connection even after she moved back to Poland/Russia. That would not have helped her after the US entered the war but it does increase the possibility of information.