Remembering World War II

Name: Henry Gordon Brinston Rank: Able Seaman Service Number: C/JX181399 Service: HMS Forfar (F30), Armed Merchant Cruiser, Royal Navy Date of Birth: June 15, 1914 Place of Birth: Newfoundland Date of Death: December 2, 1940 Age: 28 Cemetery/Memorial: Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent, England Reference: 39, 3 Henry Gordon Brinston was the son of Walter Freeman Brinston (1886-1955) and Susannah ‘Susan’ (Childs) Brinston (1895-1972), of Lark Harbour, Newfoundland, and the brother of Walter Brinston (1916-1997), Freeman Brinston (b. 1916), Jeanette Brinston (1918- 1998), George R. Brinston (1920-1979), Mary Brinston (1923-2014), Solomon Brinston, Kenneth Brinston, Elsie Brinston, and Beatrice Brinston. Henry Gordon, aged 6, was enumerated at 193 Tupper Street, Sydney, Nova Scotia with his parents and, at the time, three younger siblings, in 1921. HMS Forfar was originally laid down as the steam passenger ship Montmorency, completed in March 1922 as the Montrose for the Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd in Montreal, Quebec. The ship was requisitioned by the Royal Navy on September 4, 1939, as armed merchant cruiser HMS Forfar (F30). The conversion was completed in November 1939 and the ship was assigned to the Northern Patrol. HMS Forfar (F30), captained by Captain Norman Arthur Cyril Hardy, RN, was hit by a torpedo from U-99 after Forfar had just left convoy HX-90 bound for OB-251 about 500 miles west of Ireland on December 2, 1940, at 5:46 am. The ship sank at 6:57 am, after four additional torpedo hits at 6:39 am, 6:43 am, 6:50 am and 6:57 am. The Master, 35 officers and 136 naval ratings were lost. Three officers and 18 naval ratings were rescued by HMCS St. Laurent (H83) (Lt H.S. Rayner, RCN), HMS Viscount (D92) (LtCdr M.S. Townsend, OBE, DSC, RN) and the British steam merchant Dunsley and landed at Oban in Scotland. Lost at sea, with no known grave, Able Seaman Henry Gordon Brinston is remembered on the Chatham Naval Memorial in Kent County, south east England. Able Seaman Henry Gordon Brinston is one of two WWII casualties with ties to Nova Scotia listed on the Chatham Naval Memorial. The other is Able Seaman Reginald Wheeler.

Henry Gordon Brinston

Source: nbg.chebucto.org Canadian Virtual War Memorial uboat.net