Where is Cornelius Bridgeman buried?
QMy cousin, Cornelius Bridgeman (1918– 1943), was on the motor tanker British Fortitude in 1943 when he was taken ill and transferred to HMIS
Godavari. He had an operation but died. His death was reported to the shipping master at Gibraltar. HMIS
Godavari was transferred to Pakistan on Partition. I don’t know the whereabouts of the log and am trying to locate Cornelius’ remains. His Merchant Navy discharge number was AR142579R143243-R142852.
William Clague
AI would start by requesting a copy of Cornelius’ wartime Merchant Navy registration document from The National Archives at Kew (TNA). These are in series BT372 or BT382, and your relation’s records should be in BT372/80/77 (see tinyurl.com/ TNAdischargenumbers). You need to contact TNA about the record before you visit, since the series contains information about people who may still be alive. The documents often contain a photo, details of ships served on, next of kin etc. They may also include more details of his death.
The official records for HMIS Godavari are not at TNA nor in the British Library’s India Office collection. You could contact the National Archives of India ( nationalarchives.nic.in) to determine if it has any records of this ship for 1943.
Since Cornelius’ death was reported to the authorities at Gibraltar, I would also contact the Gibraltar National Archives for advice ( nationalarchives.gi). Someone there may be able to tell you where a British seafarer from the Second World War might be interred locally, or if there was any kind of official registration process for such burials.
Another option is to locate the log and crew agreement for British Fortitude. Wartime records of this kind are all kept at TNA in series BT380–381. If the vessel’s captain knew what happened to Cornelius, he may have recorded it. British Fortitude has the official number 165448, and its crew agreement and log for 1943 will be in BT381/2545.
Finally, many merchant seamen working on oil tankers were part of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. You could contact its very active historical society for advice ( historicalrfa.org).