RATCLIFFE
RATCLIFFE Harry
Died 4 May 1917 Age 25
Buried Savona Town Cemetery, Italy
NAME Harry RATCLIFFE
Service Record
Private 36267 The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment 2nd Battalion.
Died at sea. RATCLIFFE was travelling on RMT Transavania formerly RMS Transalvania which was built in 1914.
On May 3, 1917, the Transylvania sailed from Marseille to Alexandria with a full complement of troops, escorted by the Japanese destroyers Matsu and Sakaki.
At 10 am on May 4 the Transylvania was struck in the port engine room by a torpedo fired by the German U-boat U-63 under the command of Otto Schultze. At the time the ship was about 2.5 miles (2.2 nmi; 4.0 km) south of Cape Vado near Savona, in the Gulf of Genoa. The Matsu came alongside the Transylvania and began to take on board troops while the Sakaki circled to force the submarine to remain submerged.
Twenty minutes later a second torpedo was seen coming straight for the Matsu, which saved herself by going astern at full speed. The torpedo hit the Transylvania instead, which sank immediately. Ten crew members, 29 army officers and 373 soldiers lost their lives.
Many bodies of victims were recovered at Savona and buried two days later, in a special plot in the town cemetery including Harry Ratcliffe. Others are buried elsewhere in Italy, France, Monaco and Spain. Savona Town Cemetery contains 85 Commonwealth burials from the First World War, all but two of them casualties from the Transylvania. Within the cemetery is the Savona Memorial which commemorates a further 275 casualties who died when the Transylvania sank, but whose graves are unknown.
Transylvania was discovered by the Italian Carabinieri on 7 October 2011 off the coast of the island of Bergeggi at a depth of 630 metres (about).
A further journalist report of the incident is here
Son of William and late Agnes Ratcliffe of 12 Ramsden St. In 1901 they were living in Main Street Warton.
The data is the editor's interpretation of documents from:
The National Archive
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Find My Past (this can be viewed free of charge in local UK libraries if you are a library member).
Ancestry.co.uk (this can be viewed free of charge in local UK libraries if you are a library member).
Everyone Remembered
Click to go back to Carnforth War Memorial Page