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Scullion Raymond George Blench
1939-1945 War: Merchant Navy
Died: 11 Dec 1941 Age: 18
Tower: Macclesfield (Christ Church) Society: Chester Diocesan
CWGC Grave/Memorial: https://cccbr.org.uk/resources/roh/cemetery-details/?cemid= -- 0
Notes
Lost at sea.
Initials written in Memorial Book as "R".
Born 1923. Son of George Blench and Rosamond Blench (nee Hilton) of Macclesfield. His parents married on 24/08/1914 in Headingley, Leeds. Raymond joined the Merchant Navy at the beginning of 1941, working on the M.V. ”Waiwera”. This ship sailed from Liverpool on 12/11/1941, called at Curacao on 28/11/1941 and Kingston, Jamaica, on 30/11/1941, passed through the Panama Canal and reached Auckland, New Zealand, on the 22/12/1941. Raymond was reported missing on 11 or 12/12/1941. Cause of death was recorded as ‘Lost Overboard’. There were no witnesses to his disappearance. His death was registered in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is understood that Raymond cannot be listed on the CWGC as a war casualty because the ship was not located in a war zone at the time that he was lost overboard, however, he is remembered on War Memorials in Macclesfield and Gawsworth, Cheshire and, of course, in the Memorial Book of Church Bell Ringers. It should be noted that on 29/06/1942, the M.V. Waiwera was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-754, 450 miles North of the Azores.