Dates:
War Service:
Engineer Sub-Lieutenant HAROLD BILSON, Royal Naval Reserve died on 12 September 1918 when the armed boarding steamer H.M.S. "Sarnia." was torpedoed in the Mediterranean. Armed boarding steamers were commercial vessels requisitioned by the Admiralty, fitted with guns and used to patrol sea routes on the lookout for merchant ships trying to evade the British blockade of German ports or attempting to lay mines in the the approaches to British or Allied ports.
He was lost at sea and is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
Location of Memorial:
He is remembered on the memorial in the Wesleyan church in Dartmouth Road, Sydenham.
Details:
He was 32 years old, the son of David and Fanny Bilson, of Holmfirth, Huddersfield and husband of Lillian Alice Bilson, of 4, Glenalmond Rd., Egremont, Cheshire.
Another Lewisham resident, Able Seaman John Ward, also died on the ‘Sarnia’.
Contributed By: Andy Pepper
Do you have more information on this person or the memorial they are commemorated on? If so click here to contribute information.
by Local History and Archives Centre, Lewisham and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
