ss. King Edward, Convoy 154 - Dec.1942-Sept.2004

Harry was my eldest brother and was 17 when he sailed on the King edward en route to America. I was 12 years old. All I ever knew about his death was that the ship was torpedoed at 0415 on December 27th 1942 and that he was not a survivor. Our Mam never talked about it.
One day in September 2004 I was doing family research and I Googled my maiden name. Much to my surprise among the Drewery's that came up was Harry's Memorial. As this was not the CWGC site I entered it and discovered it was the website of J. Gordon Mumford who gave the detailed account of the terrible events that happened during that journey. Of the 45 ships in the convoy 15 were sunk and of the 48 men on board the King Edward, 23 were lost. The ship went down in 3 minutes. As I read the account I was transported back to my youth and I felt as if I was an eye witness. For two days I could think of nothing else, the pain was so intense. Eventually I got things into perspective again and was very grateful that although it was 62 years later,I now knew the facts. Because of the terrible loss of life and shipping during that convoy it became a pivotal point of the Battle of the Atlantic and strategy was changed from then on.
A book was also written by Henry Revely titled "The Convoy That Nearly Died - the Story of ONS154" giving the full details .

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