James Haldane McDonald Harrower 2nd Radio Officer SS Larpool (Whitby) British Merchant Navy November 14, 1916 Edinburgh, Scotland Single Euphemia Harrower (Mother) Edinburgh, Scotland November 14, 1941 25 Camp Hill Cemetery, Halifax, Nova Scotia Sec. S. Div.2 Grave 47 East. Scottish National War Memorial - Roll of Honour James Haldane McDonald Harrower was the son of David Wight Harrower (1884-1947) and Euphemia (McDonald) Harrower (1886-1964). James was the brother of Allison Downie Harrower (1911-1982) and Christina Cameron Wight Harrower (1913-1987). At the outbreak of World War II, James was twenty-three. He joined the British Merchant Navy and in November of 1941 he was serving as the 2nd Radio Officer on the SS Larpool. The ship a steam merchant was completed in 1924 by William Pickersgill & Sons Ltd., Sunderland and was owned by Headlam & Sons, Whitby, Yorkshire, northern England. The SS Larpool, with a crew of 43, that included four DEM gunners, departed Loch Ewe in Scotland en route for Barbados and Demerara (present day Guyana) with general cargo in a convoy. After a few days the ship encountered problems in the engine room, and lost contact with the convoy during the night of October 28/29. Continuing on their own on November 1 the ship was 300 miles west of Newfoundland and the crew saw an American plane that circled over the ship and could see the pilots giving them the “V” sign. The Americans were doing submarine spotting without actually being in the war. At midnight on November 1 the ship turned south was 230 miles west of Cape Race. At 5:26 am on November 2, 1941, U-208 fired a spread of two G7e torpedoes from a long distance at the unescorted Larpool which was steaming at 8 knots in rough sea and strong wind. One of the torpedoes hit the ship on the port side forward but had not much effect. The crew members and four gunners began to abandon ship, first releasing the rafts and then launching two lifeboats and one small boat. The U-boat moved closer and fired two more torpedoes at 7:17 am that struck the drifting Larpool on the port side amidships and at the bow, causing the ship to break in two and sink within seconds. The master, chief officer, and four crew were in the small boat. 15 occupants, including James Harrower, were in the second lifeboat while the remaining 22 survivors were in a third lifeboat. All boats set sail and soon lost sight of each other, experiencing a very heavy westerly gale with strong wind, very rough sea and extremely cold temperatures. The 22 crew members including three gunners in the third lifeboat were lost, last seen on the day of the sinking. The small boat with six men headed for the south of Newfoundland and eventually made landfall near Burin on November 10. Four crew members died of exposure in the second lifeboat before ten crew members and one gunner were rescued by HMCS Bittersweet (K 182) after 13 days at sea and landed at Halifax. The Canadian Corvette found them in the area where the SS Larpool had been torpedoed. James Harrower, one of the four, died of exposure in the lifeboat on his 24th birthday only a few hours before the remaining survivors were rescued on November 14. His body was brought to Halifax. All survivors suffered severely from exposure, thirst and swollen feed from the icy water in the half-filled boats. 2nd Radio Officer James Haldane McDonald Harrower was buried on November 19, 1941, in the Camp Hill Cemetery, Halifax.

Name: Rank: Service: Date of Birth: Place of Birth: Marital Status: Next of Kin: Date of Death: Age at Death: Cemetery Reference:

Sources: Commonwealth War Graves Commission findagrave uboat.net William Valentine Hopper (Oral history- Reel #3) Imperial War Museum Nova Scotia Archives - Death Certificate