Clonlara Crew
On the 22nd of August 1941 the Irish Registered vessel Clonlara [ No 147373] owned by the Limerick Steamship Company was attacked without warning while steaming in a British Convoy in the North Atlantic by the German Submarine U 564 Commanded by Korvetten Kapitan Reinhard Suhren. She immediately sank with the loss of 11 crewmembers.
Crew Lost
William Carr, 5 Lower Rutland Street,
Dublin , Fireman, aged 29.
Edward Greene, 22 Aldboro House, Dublin,
Fireman, aged 27.
Edward Kavanagh, 22 Upper Dorset Street,
Dublin, Fireman.
John Lambe, 26 Newfoundland Street,
Dublin, Able Seaman, aged 22.
Peter McGuigan, " The Green ", Lusk, Co
Dublin, 2nd Mate, aged 44.
Samuel McKane, 15A Saint Joseph
Mansions, Dublin, Fireman, aged 37.
Joseph Reynolds, 63B Muirhead Avenue,
Liverpool 13, Master, aged 41.
Archie Robertson, Bruff, Co Limerick,
Able Seaman, aged 48.
William J Smith, 5 Ropewalk Place,
Ringsend, Steward, aged 38.
John T Spanner, 27 Dartmouth Road,
Dublin, 1st Mate, aged 41.
Robert S Spence, 6
Clonmore Road, Ballybough, 1st Engineer, aged 62.
Sponsored by the Irish Seamen's Relatives Association (1939-46), the Irish Merchant Navy Memorial Plaque and Plinth uniquely embossed with the Irish flag commemorating those crews lost on Irish registered vessels during world war two, is now on view in the British Merchant Navy Section of the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, which is currently managed by the Royal British Legion. An oak tree within the Merchant Navy Convoy oak wood section which is located directly behind the plinth is also dedicated to their memory. In September 2007, a new memorial plaque was fixed to the front of the plinth, to record the names of the 5 Irish Born Merchant Seamen captured while serving on British merchant vessels who lost their lives as a result of Gestapo ill-treatment in the Arbeitsertziehungslager located in Bremen-Farge 1943-45. The Irish Merchant Navy Memorial Plaque is listed in the official inventory of United Kingdom War Memorials.
