Current Information:

Age-17

 20, Wilmot Place, Hanwell

HMS Alcantara began life as a liner of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company but in 1915 was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into an armed merchant cruiser and fitted with eight 6 inch guns, two 6 pounders anti-aircraft guns and depth charges. She was then commissioned into the 10th Cruiser Squadron that patrolled about 200,000 square miles of the North Sea and Arctic Ocean to prevent German access to or from the North Atlantic.

On 29th February, 1916, whilst some 100 kilometers north-east of the Shetlands, HMS Alcantara and her sister ship, HMS Andes, moved to intercept a German cruiser, the SMS Greif which had disguised itself as a Norwegian ship, the Rena. HMS Alcantara trained her guns on the ship and launched a boarding party in one of her cutters. At this point SMS Greif raised the German flag lowered false bulkheads, concealing her guns and opened fire. HMS Alcantara opened fire as well and in the ensuing battle both ships were badly damaged and both eventually sank. HMS Andes and other ships that arrived on the scene picked up survivors from both ships but over 350 men perished, 72 from the crew of HMS Alcantara.