Current Information:

Q ships were designed to look like defenceless merchant ships which would lure enemy submarines to attack them on the surface. They would then reveal their hidden guns and engage the submarine. They were called Q ships after their home port of Queenstown in Ireland. There has been a long running debate as to their effectiveness in sinking German submarines with some maintaining that they were a waste of resources, pointing to the fact that minefields destroyed more U-boats. Nevertheless they accounted for 10% of U-boat sinkings.

HMS Begonia an Azalea-class sloop converted to a Q ship, embarked on an Atlantic patrol on 3rd September, 1917 and was declared lost on 6th October, 1917. There were reports that she had been sunk in a collision with a German submarine but this turned out to be a case of mistaken identity and it is not known how she came to grief. None of her crew of just over one hundred survived and among those who lost their lives was Wesley Holdsworth.