Torpedo attacks – dad dies, son lives
Steamer on voyage home
A long-serving Stirling seaman was killed when the Merchant Navy vessel on which he was working was torpedoed.
The death of John Fleming, Bank Street, was reported in the Observer alongside another story explaining that his son, also John, had a fortnight earlier also been on a boat torpedoed by the Germans.
John Fleming senior, who had previously lived in Raploch before moving to Stirling, was the first man from the town to die while serving with the Merchant Navy in World War One.
He had been a seaman for 40 years and as a stoker employed by a number of shipping lines had visited most of the principal ports of the world.
The Observer said: “In the course of his long experience he had never been shipwrecked or met with any serious accident.
“He was on a voyage home when the steamer on which he was engaged was torpedoed by a German submarine.
“Mr Fleming was below at the time and is believed to have been killed in the explosion. The vessel sank in a few minutes and was never seen again. The remainder of the crew were saved.”
Mr Fleming left a widow and a grow-up family of sons, four of whom joined the Army at the outbreak of war.
Cpl Thomas Fleming was killed in France and sergeants William and Robert Fleming, both of the A&SH, were at that time in hospital suffering from wounds received in the fighting in April, 1917. Pte Martin Fleming was serving in France at the time the Observer article appeared.
Fifth son John Fleming junior also worked as a stoker on ocean-going steamers and two weeks earlier the vessel on which he was engaged was torpedoed and sank in minutes. Crew members were saved but lost their possessions.
John junior had before worked as a bricklayer and was well known for at one time playing left back with King’s Park FC.