Death: Sunk by Japanese submarine I-27, 500m north west of Ceylon
Address / Local links: 39 Kenmere Road Welling
Family / Relatives: Son of Ernest William and Emily Brentnall. Husband of Barbara Florence Brentnall of Welling
Other Information: A Bakers’ Roundsman
The steamship Fort Mumford was built in Canadian British Columbia in 1942 for the British Government’s war effort – sadly, her wartime role was to be short lived, and it ended in catastrophe and brutality…
A researcher describes her final voyage “in the Indian Ocean, 500 miles NW of Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
The 7,132-ton British armed merchant FORT MUMFORD, loaded with 6,649-tons of war supplies for the Mediterranean, left Vancouver, Canada on her maiden voyage via Lyttleton, New Zealand and Colombo, Ceylon.
The Japanese submarine I-27 torpedoes and sinks the FORT MUMFORD then enroute from Colombo to Aden. The Mumford´s crew abandons ship. Lt. Cdr Fukumura complies with the Imperial “disposal” policy concerning POWs and orders the slaughter of the FORT MUMFORD crewmen by machine-gun fire. There is only one survivor (Horace Bailey), a defensive gunnery rating, later rescued by an Arab dhow.”
(The Japanese submarine I-27 was the same vessel which was to subsequently sink the SS Khedive Ismail, on which Welling’s William Bracknell was to lose his life)…
Among its murdered crew of 44 was able Seaman Norman Arthur Brentnall.
Norman was born in Luton on 13th March1912. His father, Ernest William Brentnall was a fitter and turner, and his mother was Emily (nee Cook).
A few years later, the Brentnalls seem to have settled in Plumstead, and towards the end of WW1 we find Norman attending Oakmere School (or Wickham Lane School as it was known then). The family were later to be found at Tormount Road in Plumstead..
In June 1935 Norman married Barbara Florence Warren at St. Mark’s Church Plumstead – Norman was 23, Barbara was 21 – before moving to Kenmere Road in Welling in the late 1930s – his profession was given as ‘salesman’, (we think actually he was a baker’s roundsman, and also a Special Constable). They had one son, Beverley Peter Brentnall, born in September 1936 and a daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1942.
It appears that after joining the Royal Navy, Norman was initially posted to HMS President III DEMS, an administrive unit for the Defensive Equipped Merchant Ships, located at Dedworth Manor in Windsor, before being transferred to the armed merchant vessel SS Fort Mumford.
The ship’s crew consisted of both merchant navy and Royal Navy personnel – as a Royal Navy seaman, Norman’s name was to be one later to be found on the Chatham RN memorial…
Chatham Naval Memorial
“After the First World War, an appropriate way had to be found of commemorating those members of the Royal Navy who had no known grave, the majority of deaths having occurred at sea where no permanent memorial could be provided.
An Admiralty committee recommended that the three manning ports in Great Britain – Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth – should each have an identical memorial of unmistakable naval form, an obelisk, which would serve as a leading mark for shipping. The memorials were designed by Sir Robert Lorimer, who had already carried out a considerable amount of work for the Commission, with sculpture by Henry Poole. The Chatham Naval Memorial was unveiled by the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) on 26 April 1924.
After the Second World War it was decided that the naval memorials should be extended to provide space for commemorating the naval dead without graves of that war, but since the three sites were dissimilar, a different architectural treatment was required for each. The architect for the Second World War extension at Chatham was Sir Edward Maufe (who also designed the Air Forces memorial at Runnymede, and was a one-time resident of Bexleyheath’s Red House) and the additional sculpture was by Charles Wheeler and William McMillan. The Extension was unveiled by the Duke of Edinburgh on 15 October 1952.
Chatham Naval Memorial commemorates 8,517 sailors of the First World War and 10,098 of the Second World War”
Norman’s widow, Barbara, remained living at 39 Kenmere Road until her death in 1995
Pictured are Norman’s and Barabara’s marriage certificate, and two images of his ship, the SS Fort Mumford.
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If anyone is able to add any extra information, provide more family details, or suggest any corrections, please let us know – also, if anyone has any more photos of this individual listed on our memorials, please get in touch. Thank you.
Commemorated
- St. Michael’s East Wickham Church Memorial Tablet
- Chatham Naval Memorial
This story has been researched by volunteers. We have taken every effort to ensure its accuracy. If you are related to Norman Arthur Brentnall, or if you have any further information, please do get in touch.