The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Angus man’s pilgrimage to tragic soldier’s grave
501 died when U-boat sank mail ship
An Angus man has made a pilgrimage to the Solway coast to honour an Arbroath soldier who was killed in a U-boat attack in 1918.
Patrick Anderson, a keen historian from Letham, laid a poppy cross at the grave of Corporal Charles Edward Withington at St Cuthbert’s Old Churchyard in Kirkcudbright.
Cpl Withington, 46, of the Royal Defence Corps, lived with his wife Mary and three children at Dishlandtown Street in Arbroath and joined up in June 1915.
He was stationed in Tralee and was on his way home from Ireland to Holyhead in Wales on leave when the Royal Mail ship Leinster was attacked by three torpedoes from UB-123 on October 10.
His body was washed ashore at Kirkcudbright alongside four other victims and his wife identified his remains before he was buried with full military honours.
The official death toll was 501, out of a total of 771 (77 crew and 694 passengers) which remains the greatest single loss of life in the Irish Sea.
The five war graves containing the bodies of the Leinster Disaster victims that washed up at Kirkcudbright were paid for by public subscription.
Mr Anderson said: “I was honoured to lay a poppy cross at the grave of former Arbroath resident Cpl Charles Edward Withington.
“He is buried with his colleagues from other British Army regiments that were stationed in Ireland with him.
“They were all going on leave and hoping the war would be over by the time they returned to duty – sadly he and his colleagues never saw the end of the Great War.”
Mr Anderson was interested in Cpl Withington after finding his name alongside that of his uncle on the St Mary’s Church Great War Memorial in Arbroath.
Cpl Withington and Lieutenant Patrick Wright Anderson both attended St Mary’s and their names are on both the church’s war memorial and the town’s war memorial.
Mr Anderson said: “Cpl Withington’s name is not on the Scottish National War Memorial roll of honour at Edinburgh Castle and I tried to get his name added to that roll.
“Sadly I wasn’t able to as he was born in Lancashire and all casualties must be Scottish by birth.”
In 2008, 90 years after its sinking, a commemorative stamp was issued by An Post, recalling particularly the Post Office’s 21 staff who died in the tragedy.