Today is Remembrance Day when we remember all those who lost their lives during war so that we might be free. I buy a poppy every year in remembrance of my Uncle Lindum Morris who died during the Second World War aged just 16 years.

Uncle Lindum was desperate to join the Royal Navy and went to the recruiting office and lied about his age. The recruiting officer realised that he was still only a boy and sent him back home. Uncle Lindum still wanted to go to sea and also wanted to do something for the war effort. He eventually managed to find a job as cabin boy on the Merchant Vessel Edwy R Brown.

The MV Edwy R Brown was an oil tanker and Uncle Lindum sailed from Great Britain to Halifax, Nova Scotia where he arrived safely. The ship was filled with clean fuel oil to be brought back to Great Britain and then she had to wait for a convoy to be formed. Ships sailed in convoys because it was safer than sailing alone across the Atlantic during war time. A convoy could only travel as fast as its slowest member and this convoy was a slow convoy. By the night of 17/18th February 1941 the convoy was just south of Iceland and had only to sail for another day or so to be safe. A wolf pack (a group of German u-boats) was lying in wait for them and a number of ships from the convoy were torpedoed and sunk.

Amongst those ships was the MV Edwy R Brown. My Uncle Lindum was just 16 years old when he died, he would have celebrated his 17th birthday in July 1941. Uncle Lindum and his ship mates, along with all merchant seamen and fishermen who died during World War II and who have no grave but the sea are commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial in London.

 If you want to check out your ancestors who served inthe armed forces or the merchant fleet and who died during the First or Second World War then take a look at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site. Many people from India and Pakistan and from the West Indies fought during the Wars and will be commemorated on this web site as well as British people, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders, in fact, anyone who came from a country that formed part of the old British Empire, now known as the British Commonwealth.