Acting Able Seaman George Dawson of Lurgan, Co. Armagh served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, training as a gunner at H.M.S. President III.
Acting Able Seaman
C/JX 334601
Acting Able Seaman George Dawson (C/JX 334601) served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. He was the son of Richard Dawson and Mary A. Dawson of Lurgan, Co. Armagh.
Able Seaman Dawson died on 3rd January 1943 while serving on M.V. British Vigilance. Dawson’s base was at H.M.S. President III, a shore establishment for training gunners for Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships. He was one of two Royal Navy gunners killed when British Vigilance came under torpedo attack en route from Curaçao to Gibraltar.
Straggling behind Convoy TM-1, the Harland and Wolff Ltd. built vessel carried 11,000 tons of petroleum products. U-514 attacked around 900 miles northeast of Barbados killing two naval gunners and 25 members of the Merchant Navy crew.
H.M.S. Saxifrage picked up 26 survivors, landing them at Gibraltar, and leaving the burning tanker to drift for a further three weeks. U-105 sank the stricken vessel with another two torpedo strikes on 24th January 1943.
Acting Able Seaman George Dawson has no known grave and his name is on Column 68, Panel 3 of the Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, England. His name is also on the Waringstown War Memorial, Waringstown, Co. Down.