I met Julie Redpath at the CWGC stand at the Armed Forces Day event in Edinburgh on 22nd June 2024.

She told me about her great-uncle John who is buried in a very remote location in Timbouctou and asked if I could help her to find a photo of his headstone.

The family do have a photo, but it is very old and faded, and because of the location of John’s grave it isn’t be possible for the family to visit.

I’ve used the “War Graves Photographic Project” (TWGPP) many times in the past and sent them a request.

TWGPP is run by Steve Rogers and has volunteers all over the world who take photos of headstones.

Luckily they had a photo of John’s headstone which I received within 24 hours. I am very grateful to them for their help.

Julie’s daughter has done extensive family research and when I mentioned the “For Evermore” project to Julie she asked if I’d upload John’s story on behalf of his family. It is my privilege to do so.

John Turnbull Graham was born on 25th July 1918 at 41 Northumberland Street, North Shields to Edward Graham, a Shipyard Riveter/Boilermaker and his wife Isabella Dawson Moore Turnbull, a Fish Worker (Kipperer).

John had five siblings: Edward Graham (1916-1996); Edith Graham (1921-1988); Ellen Graham (1924-1995); Isabella Graham (1929-1997); and David Milburn Graham (1933-2001).

Julie Redpath is the daughter of Valerie Kempster, the daughter of John Graham’s sister Isabella.

John Graham joined the Merchant Navy in 1936 and in 1942 he was serving as an Able Seaman onboard S.S. Allende when she was torpedoed by a German U-Boat off the African Coast.

After being captured and interned at Timbuktu (Tombouctou) John died on 2nd May 1942 of Apoplexy: unconsciousness or incapacity resulting from a stroke or cerebral haemorrhage.

In the newspaper report of john’s death (Shields Daily News, 7th August 1942) it states that he was returning home because of a serious illness, which would have been aggravated as a result of the heat and the treatment he received as a prisoner of war.

At the time of his death John Graham was 23 years old. John’s crewmate, Chief Engineer William Soutter, died of Malaria a few weeks later, on 28th May, and is buried alongside him in Timbouctou. He was 60 years old.

The Allende was a steam merchant ship of 5,081 tons which was built by the Northumberland Shipbuilding Company at Howdon-on-Tyne and was owned by R.E. Morel & Co. Ltd., Cardiff.

She was en-route from Calcutta to the United Kingdom via Sandheads, Capetown and Freetown, carrying 7,700 tons of general cargo when she was torpedoed by U-68. At 21.03 hours on 17th March 1942 the unescorted Allende (Master, Thomas James Williamson) was hit on the starboard side amidships by one torpedo from U-68 about 18 miles south of Cape Palmas, Liberia.

Five crew members on watch below were lost (Francis King Mason, Joseph Renard, John Sango, Charles A. Stonehouse and Joseph Williams) they are all commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial to the Missing of the Merchant Marine.

The master, 30 crew members and seven gunners abandoned ship in two lifeboats and were questioned by the Germans before the U-Boat fired a coup-de-grace at 22.28 hours.

The torpedo hit aft and caused the Allende to sink by the stern within five minutes. The survivors made landfall at at Tabou, French Ivory Coast, and were interned for four months by the Vichy French authorities at Bobo Dioulasso and Bamako.

Two crew members died of illness during the internment (John Graham and William Soutter) and another shortly after being released (Thomas Alderman Dixon),.

Thomas Dixon was originally commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial to the Missing of the Merchant Marine, but is now known to be buried in Fajara War Cemetery in The Gambia.

The remainder of the crew were eventually repatriated to the United Kingdom aboard M.V. Highland Monarch and S.S. New Northland.

ARE THE BRITISH WW2 MERCHANT NAVY GRAVES IN TIMBUCTOO THE REMOTEST ON EARTH?

Bernard de Neumann In March 1942, the Allende was sunk, and all but five of her crew got away in the boats.

They landed at Tabou on the Ivory Coast and were later taken to Sassandre. From there they were taken in lorries for five days, followed by a day and a night in a train which brought them to Bobo-Dioulasso.

From there they travelled for a further five days in lorries to Mopti. Then they were put into canoes for ten days for the journey down the Niger River to Tombouctou.

They had a most uncomfortable journey from Mopti to Port Caron, lying in the bottom of canoes, drenched with water and just about eaten alive by mosquitoes. At night and for meals they had to tie up at some native village.

There was not sufficient room in the original building used for the camp for the new contingent so the men of Criton and Allende were put into the new building and the officers of both ships into the old building.

They were all glad to see new faces as conversation becomes very limited and things became somewhat dull when a few men are shut up together for a long time.

Not long after their arrival at the end of April Graham and Soutter died - of sunstroke and typhoid respectively.

After these men died the Vichy French moved to repatriate the remaining members of the Allende’s crew at the end of June 1942, and in August moved the remainder of Criton’s crew back to Kankan to join their shipmates.

The crew of the Criton were released in December 1942 and arrived back in the UK in January 1943.

The two graves were attended and restored in 1999 on behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission by Dr Tim Insoll of the Department of Art History and Archaeology, University of Manchester and have since had new stones erected.

You might think you know everything there is to know about the CWGC but as Peter Francis, Media and PR Executive, discovers there might be a couple of things you hadn’t realised about the work of the Commission across the globe.

WE HAVE GRAVES IN TIMBUKTU. #TOTHEFOURCORNERS

One of the remotest war grave sites in our care must be Timbuktu (Tombouctou) Cemetery in Mali – and not just remote but, at first glance, rather confusing too. Within this small cemetery are two war graves to Merchant Seamen, even though Timbuktu is thousands of kilometres away from the sea!

Note: Timbouctou is just over 1,200 miles from Tabou, Côte d'Ivoire, where the crew of S.S. Allende first landed.

Able Seamen John Turnbull Graham (died on 2 May 1942, age 23) and Chief Engineer William Soutter (died on 28 May 1942, age 60) were part of the crew of the S.S. Allende – a merchant vessel that sank off the coast of West Africa in March 1942.

The crew were first sent to Freetown in Sierra Leone and then on to Tombouctou – where they were held as prisoners of war.