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So why the conclusion of drowning?
Could it be that there was something of a cover-up
going on? Was it important not to reveal details
of Q-Ship's tactics, possibly to the enemy? Could
it be that Mrs Cawley had been given a "comforting"
story of drowning, rather than the more terrible
truth that her son had died alone in an open boat?
Did the inquest have to "toe the line?
The truth will have to wait, and probably will
never be really known. It maybe just another incident
lost in the fog of a terrible war.
In the meantime I took the time go up to Almorah
Cemetery and visit George
Cawley. I found him lying under a standard CWGC
headstone, and surrounded by hundreds of Jersey
men and women. When there, I wondered whether, with
the exception of the CWGC people who added the headstone,
whether anybody had come to visit since that day
when the town turned out to honour this young man,
washed up as "flotsam of war". Or had
he simply been submerged in the greater tragedy
of the First World War.
Sources:
- Jersey Evening Post: April 1917
- British Vessels Lost at Sea. 1914-18 & 1939-45
1. Kempt Tower was one of the outposts in St
Ouen's Bay used by the West Battalion of the Royal
Jersey Militia during the war. It was guarded
by men of No 2 Sub-Section.
2.The Somme: 20 miles E by N from C Barfleur.
Five souls lost.
The Dee: 410 mile W by S from Cape Leeuwin.
The Harberton: North Sea. Fifteen souls, including
Master, lost.
The Endymion (SV): English Channel: Four souls,
including Master, lost.
3. ADM 131/85
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