Name: Robert B. Cloran Rank: Seaman Service: SS Empire March (Barrow, England), Merchant Navy Date of Birth: January 1, 1912 Place of Birth: Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Height: 6 Feet, 1 Inch Complexion: Fair Eye Colour: Blue Hair Colour: Light Brown Occupation: Seaman Marital Status: Single (at enlistment) Next of Kin: Alice (Sister), Sydney Mines, NS Date of Death: January 2, 1943 Age: 28 Cemetery: Halifax Memorial, Nova Scotia Reference: Panel 23 Commemorated on Page 114 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 9 and August 6 Robert Cloran was the son of Robert Cloran and Mary Matilda Peck, and the husband of Alice Maria (Double) Cloran (1907-1991), of Tower Hamlets, London, England. In the 1921 census, he (age 10), and his sister Alice M. Cloran (age 15) are listed as lodgers living at Cranberry Point in Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, with Mr. and Mrs Thomas and Catherine Lockman. Robert married Alice M. Double in August of 1941 in Stepney, London, England. Robert’s merchant navy experience included a varied service on various ships. Robert served on the SS Caduecus as a fireman, departing London, England on May 13, 1941, headed to New York via Halifax, and arriving June 9, 1941. He also appears on records as arriving in New York on March 25, 1942, having left Gourock, Scotland on the March 13th aboard SS Neville, and next in records as a fireman departing Halifax on board the SS George Washington, bound for New York, and arriving April 7, 1942. In 1943, he was serving aboard the SS Empire March. The Empire March was a 7,090 GRT cargo ship which was built by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, Barrow in Furness. It was launched on February 20, 1942, and completed in April 1942. After leaving the port of Calcutta, India, on December 1, 1942, the SS Empire March arrived in Durban, South Africa, on the 18th. The Empire March set sail again, with a cargo of iron, tea, peanuts, and jute, enroute from Durban to Trinidad and when it reached a position about 150 miles (242 km) north-west of Tristan da Cunha, in the South Atlanti. It was intercepted by the German raider Michel (HSK-9), which attacked it with cannon and sank it on January 2, 1943, in position 37°S/12°W. Of her crew, 33 lost their lives. The captain and 24 other sailors were taken prisoner of war. The Michel itself was subsequently sunk by a US submarine, the USS Tarpon, soon after dropping off the survivors of the SS Empire March in Singapore. It was the first German vessel to be sunk by a US submarine in the Pacific theatre. Without a grave, Robert Cloran is remembered on Panel 23 of the Halifax Memorial in Point Pleasant Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Source: UK, Merchant Seamen Deaths, 1939 -1953 findagrave Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Halifax Memorial