Memories of Sapper William Godfrey Smith

My Uncle Bill was one of 10 children born in the East End of London in a three-bedroom terraced house. He slept with his two brothers, sharing one bed, while his seven sisters shared three beds in another room. Meals were eaten in two sittings, with the youngest children eating first and the oldest eating whatever food was left. His dad (my grandfather) operated a crane at Tilbury Docks and rode to work on his bike. My father, Edward William Smith (Ted), was the oldest son and left school at 14 to help with the family finances. He eventually opened a factory making boiled sweets and employed his sister Maud as a supervisor. His brother Bill also worked for my father for periods of time. They were good friends as well as brothers, frequently socializing together.

Bill's death in 1943, at the age of 27, came as a tremendous blow to my father. He painted a full-sized portrait of Bill in oils from a photo of him in his military uniform. The portrait hung in our dining room throughout my growing up years, and it was passed to me after my dad's death in 1984.

Uncle Bill served as a Sapper in the Royal Engineers. He was serving onboard the SS Yoma, built in 1928 in Scotland, originally a British passenger liner running a regular route between Glasgow and Burma. Yoma became a troop ship in 1941.

At 07:43 on 17 June 1943, the Yoma, in convoy, was hit by one of two torpedoes fired from a German U-boat U-81. Yoma sank after about eight hours, northwest of Derna in the Mediterranean, with the loss of 484 people, including my Uncle Bill. It is recorded that many would have been below decks having breakfast at this time. There were 1,477 survivors picked up by British coastal minesweepers and a British merchant ship, and landed at Derna. The ship was carrying French military personnel as well as British.

This U-boat was responsible for the sinking of 23 ships in total during WW2 and was eventually sunk, with the wreck being raised in April 1944 and broken up.

My Uncle Bill was awarded four medals for his service in the war from 1939-1945. (See attachments).

On Saturday, 25 October 1958, there was an unveiling of the Brookwood Memorial by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. This memorial bears the names of 3,500 men and women who gave their lives in their own country or distant waters and to whom war has denied a known and honored grave. Uncle Bill is on Panel 7, column 1.

I was born in 1947, so I have no memory of my Uncle Bill, but his memory lives on through the documents, memorabilia, and reflections of his life, and the high price he paid for our freedoms.

His medals now hang on display in the sitting room of my cousin Peter Spink, who has researched details of our uncle's military background and provided much of the information for this record.