FAMILIES across Britain researching their personal links to the First World War have produced some fascinating and often totally unexpected stories.
A London man, David Birch, following a ’trail’ on the internet to help his nephew’s little boy with a school project, discovered that the Chepstow gun came from the same U-boat (UB-91) that had sunk his great uncle’s merchant ship SS Beacon Light off the coast of Scotland on 19th February 1918.
“My great uncle Bernard Seddon was a 3rd Engineering Officer on the SS Beacon Light. He was aged 25. All 33 crew and the Master were lost after being unexpectedly attacked by the U-boat 15 miles south east of the Butt of Lewis. The youngest of them was just 16.
“It seems incredible that the gun from that same U-boat ended up in a small town over the Welsh border!".
David and his son Josh will be travelling to Chepstow this weekend to lay a private wreath at the town’s First World War commemoration event.
"Unlike some vessels on the U-boat captain’s list including, for some reason, French fishing vessels, SS Beacon Light was a legitimate military target because she was carrying fuel to Scapa Flow - described in war records as ’a defensively-armed British merchant ship’," David explained.
The U-boat captain Alfred von Glasenapp, surrendered with his 36 crew at Harwich on 18th November 2018.
The British authorities decided to populate the U-boat with crew and send her on a tour of South Wales ports including Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and Port Talbot.
"It seems quite an odd decision given that the German crews’ living conditions had been absolutely appalling, with hardly any water on board for washing or sanitation," said David.
UB-91 was eventually towed to Pembroke Dock and broken up at Briton Ferry in 1921.
The wreck of SS Beacon Light was found in 2007, lying just 100 metres below the surface on a sandy sea bed.
In 2008 David and his family attended a special memorial to the merchant fleet at Tower Hill.
For many years David has been married to the German girl he met when aged 19, who had come to the UK in the 60s to work as an au pair for his parents. His father-in-law was awarded the Iron Cross as a diver in the Kriegsmarine in the Second World War.
He says he has always been appalled by the loss of life on both sides in the First World War and cited the line, often attributed to Bertrand Russell: ’War does not determine who is right, only who is left’.