Norman Charles Fowler sadly succumbed in a life raft after the doomed SS Lulworth Hill sank
Author Richard M Jones points out Norman Charles Fowler’s name on Bridlington War Memorial(Image: Richard M Jones)
An East Yorkshire author who strives to get recognition for people of “forgotten” disasters is on a mission to honour a young sailor from his home town. Richard M Jones is appealing for information that will help him build a picture – and he would like to trace a photograph too – of Norman Charles Fowler.
He said: “I have been doing a lot of research into the sinking of the SS Lulworth Hill, which led to a man from Hull and another from Bridlington surviving 50 days on a raft off the African coast in 1943, an event that led to me leading a campaign to have plaques to both gentlemen (now holders of the George Medal) installed at Minerva Pier in Hull and at Bridlington Harbour. But another young man who was on that raft came from Bridlington.
“I would very much like to tell the story of his life, if I have the ability, but I have never been able to find anybody who is related to him. Norman Charles Fowler was just 19 years old when the Lulworth Hill was torpedoed by the Italian submarine Leonardo Da Vinci on March 19, 1943.
“The ship had sailed from Hull almost six months previously and was heading home very soon. Fourteen men boarded a raft and another was taken away by the submarine to become a PoW.
“But of the 14 survivors left at sea, one by one they died, including Fowler,” said Richard. “His name appears on the war memorial at Bridlington but I would be very interested in tracing any relatives and, if possible, finding out what he looked like so that the book I am writing can finally tell his tragic story.”
Three years ago, emotional ceremonies were held in both Hull and Bridlington when plaques were unveiled to honour Colin Armitage and Kenneth Cooke, who hailed from those places, respectively. They were the two men who lived to tell the tale of battling starvation and sharks in their 50 days cast adrift.
The Hull plaque overlooks the place from where the SS Lulworth Hill sailed on her final voyage. Attending the unveiling in 2023 was Colin’s granddaughter, Louise Beech, a former Hull Daily Mail columnist who wrote a book about his exploits called How To Be Brave.
The simultaneous unveiling in Bridlington was for Ken and the ceremonies happened on the 80th anniversary of the two survivors being rescued by HMS Rapid. At the occasion, Richard, who had helped to organise the commemorations, said by the time the Rapid found the raft, the two men were “emaciated skeletons, starving”.
He said: “Colin and Ken were barely able to make it upon the ship, they had to be helped. Since then the two men have made history with two books that have come out.”
In connection with his latest writing endeavours, Richard said: “In the last few years I have found out many aspects of this story, including reading actual letters written by the people who were lost on board this ship, and it is my intention that in 2027 the story of this ship and her crew will be told from as many angles as possible. The story of the two survivors on the raft has been well publicised, but the other 38 people on board have so much more to tell us.
“I would like to appeal to anybody out there who has any information on the Lulworth Hill or her crew to please get in touch via my email shipwreckdata@yahoo.co.uk or via my Facebook page Richard M. Jones ( www.facebook.com/shipwreck.data ). The heartbreaking and tragic story of the crew of the Lulworth Hill should never be forgotten and it is my mission to bring this to light.”
Richard has previously also written about four ships that played the part of the ill-fated Titanic in movies, as well as Bridlington’s connections with the liner; a number of books on shipwrecks and a work on the Hull rail disaster of 1927, among other titles. He has been instrumental in getting memorials installed at Hull Paragon Station – to the victims of the 1927 crash – and at Finsbury Square in London to the people lost in the Moorgate Tube Station disaster of 1975.
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