Townsend, Mark

Age: 23
Date of birth: 9th June 1922

Parents: Mark and Julia Townsend (nee Buggy)
Wife: Single
Address: 42 Crompton Street

Occupation:

Mark was born in Warwick on 9th June 1922. His father, also Mark (1884-1928) was born in Tysoe and was a chimney sweep. Mark senior was married twice. He married his first wife Connetty Rose Copson (1885-1920) in Warwick in 1904. They had five children Thomas (1905-1983), Albert (1907-1977), Frederick (1910-1987), Doris (1912-1994) and Leslie (1914-1993).
Mark joined up in 1914 and served as a private in the Coldstream Guards.
The year after his first wife died, Mark married Julia Buggy (1895-1979) born in Galway, Ireland. They had three children: Mark was the eldest, then Mary (b1923) and Sheila (b1926).
Mark senior died in 1928 aged 44.

In 1939 Julia was living at 42 Crompton Street with Frederick her stepson who had followed in his father’s footsteps and was a chimney sweep. Julia’s daughter Mary’s name is crossed out and replaced with Smith, so she must have married a Mr Smith at a later date. The two redacted names are could be Mark and Sheila.

Warwick Advertiser 26th January 1945

Military Service

Rank & Number: Air Mechanic (E) 1st Class, FX103990
Regiment/Service: Royal Navy
Brigade/Division: HMS Thane
Date of death: 15th February 1945
Cause of death/Battle: Died in Scotland following the sinking of his ship off Northern Ireland
Commemorated/Buried: Buried in Greenock Cemetery, Scotland. C. Recess. Coll. grave 57.
Awards:
Commemorated locally at: St Paul's Church, St Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church

 

Mark joined the Royal Navy as an Air Mechanic, serving on HMS Thane, a convoy escort ship that also carried aircraft from the USA.  In February 1945 it was torpedoed off Northern Ireland and badly damaged. Mark was wounded and died from his injuries in hospital in Scotland. The damaged ship succeeded in delivering nine American Sikorsky helicopters, the first to come to the UK.

He is buried in Greenock Cemetery, Scotland:

Contributors

  • Unlocking Warwick Research Group
  • Warwick Advertiser excerpt courtesy of Warwickshire County Record Office

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