Description

-1914-15 Star Trio CH17680 Pte. A. Millar R.M.L.I

-WW1 Death Plaque and original box named Andrew Millar

Drowned 25th January 1917 after HMS Laurentic was sunk by 2 German mines. Commemorated on the Chatham memorial. Born 14th April 1885, the son of Mrs Anne Hogarth of 29 Highbuckolmside, Galashiels.

S.S. Laurentic was a British transatlantic ocean liner, she was ordered by Dominion line but operated as a White Star liner between 1909-1914 and then with the Royal Navy 1914-1917. She served briefly as a troop ship and then as an armed merchant cruiser seeing service off West Africa, Singapore, the Bay of Bengal and the Far East. On the 23rd January 1917 she left Birkenhead. She was secretly carrying 3911 gold bars which the British government intended to buy munitions from Canada and the USA along with a crew of Royal Navy, Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Marine Light Infantry. On the morning of the 25th January she called at Buncrana to disembark 4 ratings with symptoms of Yellow Fever. At 1700 hours she departed in a bitterly cold blizzard, there are reports that a U-boat had been sighted near the mouth of the river and she was due to rendezvous with a Destroyer escort of Fanad Head but her commander chose to proceed without it. At 1755 hours just north of the Logh she struck a mine that had been laid by SM U-80 which exploded abreast of her foremast, 20 seconds later a second mine exploded near her engine room disabling her and her pumps. The crew were unable to transmit a wireless distress message but fired distress rockets. Both explosions were on her port side and she listed by 20degrees making it hard to launch her lifeboats. Despite the difficult conditions the crew was able to launch some lifeboats and tried to row ashore guided by Fanad Head lighthouse. The temperature dropped as low as -13 celsius and many men in the lifeboats died of hypothermia before reaching the shore. Local fishing boats rescued the exhausted and very cold survivors. In total 354 men were killed and 121 survived. Many of the dead have no known grave but the sea including Andrew Millar. They are commemorated on the Royal Naval monuments at Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth. Attempts were made to recover the gold bars. The shipment of gold bullion for the war effort was naturally shrouded in secrecy and this would have been a significant loss which was fortunately the end of the war.

Condition as shown in photographs