'HEROIC RESCUE BY PERTH YOUNG MAN DEATH RISKED TO SAVE AUNT: PERILOUS DESCENT BETWEEN STEAMER AND QUAY WALL LIVERPOOL DOCKS DRAMA ON EVE OF DEPARTURE FOR AFRICA'

'A Perth young man who is now on the high seas on his way to take up a post in West Africa was the hero of a quayside drama at Liverpool on Friday night. At the risk of being crushed to death, Mr Harold M. Whitney only son of Mr and Mrs Albert Whitney, of Craigie Road, Perth, saved his aunt from drowning when she fell into the dock after leaving the ship on which her nephew was about to sail.'

'Harold was on his way to take up an appointment with the United African Company and was sailing on one of their ships, SS Kumasian. He worked on the Gold Coast for five years before returning home to join up.'

The war in North Africa began on 8th November 1942, when Commonwealth and American troops made a series of landings in Algeria and Morocco. The Germans responded immediately by sending a force from Sicily to northern Tunisia, which checked the Allied advance east in early December. In the south, the Axis forces defeated at El Alamein withdrew into Tunisia along the coast through Libya, pursued by the Allied Eighth Army.

By mid April 1943, the combined Axis force was hemmed into a small corner of north-eastern Tunisia and the Allies grouped for their final offensive. Medjez-el-Bab was at the limit of the Allied advance in December 1942 and remained on the front line until the decisive allied advances of April and May 1943.

The Courier, 3rd June 1943

“DEATHS"

“WHITNEY.- Killed in North Africa during May 1943, Lieut. Harold M. Whitney, Royal Tank Regiment, only son of Mr and Mrs A. M. Whitney, Barnhill, Dundee.”

People’s Journal, 5th June 1943

“IN DEFENCE OF THEIR COUNTRY"

“Mr and Mrs A. M. Whitney, 4 Maule Street, Barnhill, Dundee, have been notified that their son, Lieut. Harold M. Whitney, Royal Tank Regiment, has been killed in North Africa."

“Thirty years of age, Lieut. Whitney was educated at Perth Academy. After one year at Watson’s Business College, Perth, he obtained a post in the office of the Anchor Line in Dundee. During six years there Lieut. Whitney gained the Chamber of Commerce certificate and passed in various subjects at Dundee School of Economics."

“Seven years ago he went to the Gold coast to the United Africa Company, and left two years ago to join up."

“A keen sportsman, he played rugby for Perth Academicals and was a member of King James Golf Club in Perth.”