17 June 1943, Robert North, Age 43, Royal Engineers

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Seventy five years ago the troopship SS Yoma was torpedoed and then sank in under five minutes off the coast of  Libya in the Mediterranean with great loss of life. She was carrying troops back from Algeria to Alexandria, many of them Royal Engineers who were to assist with port facilities for the Sicily invasion.

1940603 Serjeant Robert William North, Royal Engineers 945 (I.W.T.) Coy.
was one of the 484 men killed and amongst those lost at sea. Serjeant North had lost his own father when he was killed in action in the last days of WW1.

Robert was the second eldest in the large family of parents Robert and Mary North in Chiswick on the banks of the Thames. In 1917, Robert started a seven year apprenticeship bound to the Company of Watermen and Lightermen of the River Thames. His apprenticeship Master was an uncle, William Francis. By the outbreak of WW2, Robert was a travelling waterman lighterman still living in the Chiswick area with his wife. His boat handling skills were then put to use by the army in an Inland Water Transport Operating Company. His wife Eda Vera Frances North (nee Parker) was a cousin of my grandmother Dorothy Edith Broadway. Eda and Robert had no children.

In remembrance of Robert William North:

Brookwood 1939-1945 Memorial for the missing
Panel 5. Column 1.

Freemen of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen
Roll of Honour



See also:

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=225822.msg4636044#msg4636044

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=564498.msg4287342#msg4287342

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WW1 casualty Driver R. North father of Serjeant Robert William North:

https://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=802495.0