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Name: Kenneth Smith Hemeon Rank: Second Cook Regiment/Service: Canadian Merchant Navy S.S. Grayburn (London, England) Date of Death: June 29, 1941 Age at Death: 36 Memorial: Halifax Memorial (Nova Scotia, Canada) Memorial Reference: Panel 18. The 56th name on the WWII list of the Yarmouth War Memorial Commemorated on page 154 of the Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 29, August 26, and November 1 Kenneth Smith Hemeon was the son of Claude Ronald Hemeon (1880-1959) and Lydia Cunningham Smith Hemeon, of Port Clyde, Nova Scotia. His father was born in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. His mother was born in Newellton, Cape Sable Island, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia. Kenneth had two brothers Randall Ronald Smith Hemeon (1903-1978) and Ashton Smith Hemeon (1904-1990). The 6,342-ton British steam merchant SS Grayburn had departed from Baltimore, Maryland, in June 1941 with a stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on June 16th and was headed for Swansea, England. Carrying scrap and steel, it sailed with Convoy HX-133, and was torpedoed and sunk by the U-651 south of Iceland in the northern Atlantic Ocean at 12:35 in the morning on June 29, 1941. It was 4 days after Kenneth’s 36th birthday. Of the ship’s complement, 35 died and 17 survivors were picked up by the corvette HMS Violet (K 35), HMS Northern Wave (FY 153), and HMS Arabis (K 73). Sources and Information: Canadian Virtual War Memorial uboat.net
Kenneth Smith Hemeon