Driver Private Edward Hose Survives a Torpedo Attack

Edward Hose was born in Bootle, Lancashire, England on 8 September 1909 to Mary Hose (nee Fyles) and Samuel Hose. He learnt to read and write but left school at 14 having had only part-time education (see 1921 Census) and having missed some early years due to rickets.

Edward's grandfather, James Hose, owned carts and carthorses which he kept on land in Formby, Lancashire where he lived. He had worked them carting materials for the new railway from Liverpool and Bootle.

Edward's father, Samuel, was working as a railway carter in 1901 before Edward was born and later became a general carter working for Hose Brothers Carting Agents, run by his father. Edward's grandfather gave Samuel, Edward's father, a cart and horse, which Samuel used to sell groceries and green groceries door-to-door as he got older. However, Samuel passed over the horse and cart and grocery business to Edward when he left school at 14. For a time, Edward did well and had quite a lot of customers. But in his own words, he was "young and silly" and gambled away the money, so his father sold the horse and cart. Edward's father and grandfather had been carters, and for a short-time Edward became a carter too.

Edward actually didn't want to use a horse and cart but wanted to transport goods by motorised vehicle which were developing fast then. So he moved to Formby where his grandfather used to live and became a driver and agricultural worker for a market gardening business there (see 1939 Register). By this time his father had died in 1936 and his mother had also moved from Bootle to Formby.

On 20 December 1941, he married Evelyn Lowe who briefly lived with Edward and his mother in Formby.

Despite not being called up because he was an agricultural worker, Edward voluntarily joined the British Army on 21 May 1942 so he could fight for his country. He was a driver for the Royal Army Service Corps during the Second World War and while his wife went back to live and do war-work in Bootle, he was sent to fight in North Africa as part of Operation Torch. He left on a ship which was part of a convoy on 10 December 1942.

The troop ship carrying him to Algeria was torpedoed and later sank in the Mediterranean. [This could have been the SS Strathallan which was torpedoed by a German U-Boat on 21 December 1942 North of Oran. The SS Strathallan was a troop ship carrying British and American soldiers plus nurses as part of Convoy KMF 5 of Operation Torch.]

Edward managed to escape from the sinking ship and was always pleased to mention he ended up on a lifeboat full of female American and British nurses. After some time, he, along with the nurses, were rescued and he was taken back to the transport unit of the British Army he was in. His Army Service Record shows that he landed in North Africa on 21 December 1942.

In North Africa, he drove supplies to Allied troops in places like Algiers, Oran and Tunis. These were American and French soldiers in addition to British troops. I believe this included front-line troops in the battle just outside Tunis. His wife's brother, William, died in Tunis at this time.

After North Africa, he went with his regiment (the Royal Army Service Corps) to Italy. He was part of the invasion force that landed in Sicily (Operation Husky). He also drove supplies up to Naples.

Edward received five medals for his service in the war. Three brass stars: the Africa Star, the Italy Star, and the 1939 to 1945 Star. And two silver medals with the King's head on: the War Medal 1939 to 1945 and the Defence Medal. He was also awarded the First Army Clasp to wear on the ribbon of his Africa Star.

After the war, he was demobbed from the Army on 2 October 1946 but was put on the Army Reserve. He joined his wife in Burnley where he lived until the middle of the 1950s.

After that, he and his family went on to live in Merseyside, Hampshire, Wiltshire and then Lancashire again.

He died in January 1990 and was buried in Chorley Cemetery in Lancashire on 15 January 1990.