Bridge of Weir
Memorial

ENGR PET^R W HOUSTON M.MARINE

Third Engineer Peter Whitehill Houston

SS Strathnairn, Mercantile Marine

torpedoed 15th June 1915

aged 30


Tower Hill Memorial, London
Freeland Church Memorial, Bridge of Weir



Morton Terrace, Bridge of Weir
Son of James Houston and Jane Whitehill

His Life

Peter Whitehill Houston was born on 29th April 1885 in Bridge of Weir the sixth child of James Houston, a master joiner from Damhead, Bridge of Weir and Jane Whitehill, also from Bridge of Weir, who had married there on 5th June 1873.

In 1881 James (37), Jane (32) and four children were living in Burngill, Bridge of Weir. James was a master joiner employing two men and two boys.

In 1891, the family, now with five children but without father James, were living in Gryffe View, Bridge of Weir. David was an apprentice tanner, John was an apprentice wool turner and the other children including Peter (5) were at school. The family took in two lodgers, James Coghill (23), a sandstone builder from Caithness, and William Thomson (31) a cabinet and brush turner from Edinburgh.

In 1901 Peter (15) was an apprentice tanner living at Gryffe View with his widowed mother Jane and four of his siblings. David worked as a tanner; Alice was a stationer's shop assistant, Elizabeth a clerkess in a mill and James a mercantile clerk.

In 1911 Peter was living in Morton Terrace, Bridge of Weir and by then was a student marine engineer. He was living with his older siblings Alice, of private means and head of the household, and John, by then a stone cutter. Alice was active in Freeland Church, as colelctor for Ranfurly and later as treasurer of the Women's Foreign Missions.

Peter served in The Mercantile Marine. He was lost at sea when serving as third engineer on the SS Strathnairn a 4,300 ton cargo ship built in 1906 by A Rodger & Co, Port Glasgow and owned by Wm Burrell & Son, Glasgow. The ship was taking a cargo of coal from Penarth to Archangel when it was torpedoed by the German U-boat U22 off the Scilly Isles and sunk. It was the third of a total of 43 ships sunk by U22. Only 12 from a crew of 32 survived.

Peter's name is recorded on the Mercantile Marine War Memorial at Tower Hill, London.

Siblings

* = not in James and Jane Houston's family home - see text for details

Sources

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Scottish National War Memorial
• Peter Whitehill Houston birth certificate 29th April 1885. Regd. Houston & Killellan 20th May 1885.
• 1881 UK Census: Parish: Houston and Killellan; ED:4; Page:20; Line:4; Roll: cssct1881_168.
• 1891 UK Census: Parish: Kilbarchan; ED:9; Page:11; Line:8; Roll: CSSCT1891_185.
• 1901 UK Census: Parish: Kilbarchan; ED:3; Page:15; Line:7; Roll: CSSCT1901_188.
• 1911 UK Census:Parish: Kilbarchan: Ward: Bridge of Weir. Page 3, Lines 30-32. 559/0B 003/00 003.
• SS Strathnairn in Clydebuilt database Accessed 1 Nov 2014.
• Ships hit during WWI Accessed 1 Nov 2014.
• Paisley and Renfrewshire Gazette
  o 26th June 1915: ANOTHER FATALITY: Another sad death has taken place in connection with the war, through the drowning of Peter Houston, Morton-terrace, and third engineer in the S.S. Strathnairn, which was torpedoed by the enemy off the Scilly Isles on the 15th inst. It appears that the vessel was bound from Cardiff to Archangel with a cargo of coal, and was torpedoed without any warning, only twelve being saved out of a crew of thirty-two. Peter Houston, it is thought, managed to get into one of the lifeboats, which was swamped by the sinking of the vessel. He was a promising young man, of a genial disposition, and quite a favourite in the village. Much sympathy is felt for his relatives.
• Freeland United Free Church. Report. 1912. page 4.
• Freeland United Free Church. Record Since April 1916. Pub. July 1916.
• Medals: Mercantile Marine War.

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