First Mate John Alfred Glover, aged 62, Mercantile Marine was born 1853 at Portsea, the son of John Glover and Eliza Elizabeth Butler.

In 1906 at West Ham, he married Martha Jane Craven at West Ham. The couple had three children. The family resided at Meanly Road, East Ham, Essex. John Glover had spent most of his life at sea and at the time of his death, was a crew member of the Seven Seas (1,194grt, built 1888 by W. B. Thompson & Co., Ltd., Dundee and owned by Leach & Co., Ltd., Cork (London). 

The Seven Seas was sailing from London to Liverpool in ballast. On the 1st of April 1915, 6 miles south of Beachy Head, the ship was torpedoed without warning and sunk by submarine, U-37, commanded by Erick Wilke. Nine of the crew, including John Glover and the ship’s Master were lost.

The Eastbourne Chronicle for the 10th of April reported up the inquest of John Glover under the heading and sub heading of “Murder on high seas” - “Innocent merchant ship torpedoed” - “A jury’s indignation”. The report begins by saying that:

“Yet another merchant ship has been torpedoed off Beachy Head, a spot to which the German submarines seem somewhat partial in their feeble blockade of Great Britain”.

A long report then follows concerning the subsequent inquest into the death of John Glover, from which the following is extracted.

"The “hapless” ship sank within three minutes and the body of John Glover was picked up by the Hull trawler “Jackdaw” which then passed it over to the tug “Alert” which in turn took the body into Newhaven harbour. A pocket watch found on the body had stopped at 4.24 and this was taken as the time of death."

"A sworn statement by the ship’s Second Engineer, Mr Savours was read out in court in which he stated that he had come out on deck for some air, when there was a loud bang on the starboard side. The lifeboat on that side of the ship was lowered but was capsized at the moment that the ship sank and the crew were thrown into the sea, nine of these men were drowned."

"The Second Engineer supported himself with a piece of hatch until he was able to climb onto the keel of the upturned lifeboat, from where he was rescued by a torpedo boat destroyer."

"Mr J.S Corbett, one of the jury men, stated that he thought that the sinking amounted to murder on the high seas and that the Admiralty should be informed of their feelings on the matter. The coroner concurred that the Admiralty should be informed."

"The coroner, Mr G Vere Benson, said that “…all Englishmen would agree that the sinking of defenceless merchant ships was a very dastardly and illegitimate form of warfare…” The foreman of the jury said that they could not pass a verdict of murder on the Kaiser, although they would be only too willing to do so."

First Mate John Alfred Glover is buried in Newhaven Cemetery.

Notes:

The Seven Seas was the last ship attacked by Erich Wilke and U-37. On the 25th of March 1915 he torpedoed and damaged the British steamer Delmira, 3,459 tons; on the 31st of March, he attacked and sunk the French steamer Emma, 1,617 tons and finally, the Seven Seas on the 1st of April. The exact date is uncertain, but sometime between the 1st and 30th of April, 1915, U-37 went missing in the English Channel with the loss all hands - thirty three men after it struck a mine. The wreck was found in 1999 on the Sandettie Bank, off Dover

The Mercantile Marine Medal. Between 5 August 1914,and the armistice of 11 November 1918, 2,479 British merchant vessels and 675 British fishing vessels were lost as a result of enemy action, with respectively 14,287 and 434 lives lost. The Mercantile Marine War Medal was instituted by the Board of Trade and approved by the King to reward the war service of the officers and men of the Mercantile Marine. Further, to acknowledge the wartime contribution and sacrifice of the service, the King approved the renaming of the Mercantile Marine to the title "Merchant Navy"