| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Albert Press served in the Merchant Navy. On 16 Nov 1916, whilst serving as 2nd Engineer on the SS Vasco en route from Hull to Naples, the ship struck a mine dropped by German submarine UC16, 10 miles west of Beachy Head, Sussex and quickly sank with the loss of 17 lives, including that of the captain and Albert. The Vasco was a steamer of 1254 tons and owned by the Wilson Line, Hull.
Albert was born in Hull in Jan 1888 the son of Arthur Press, originally of Great Yarmouth and a marine engineer, and Sarah, from Cantley, near Doncaster. Arthur died in 1916. The family lived in Albert Avenue, Newington, Hull. Albert had five siblings.
In 1914 Albert married Violet Humphrey Dawson in Beverley. Violet was born in 1891 and was one of eight children raised by Frank and Eliza Dawson in Walkergate and then 5 Ladygate, Beverley. After attending the Spencer School, Beverley, Violet became a dressmaker. In 1911 she had posed for local artist Fred Elwell’s painting “The Wedding Dress”, now in the Ferens Gallery, Hull, portraying a distraught and deserted wife. At the time of her husband Albert’s death Violet was pregnant with their first child; Jack R Press was born on 20 Apr 1917. Violet never remarried but resumed her trade as a dressmaker. The 1939 census notes that her unmarried son, Jack, by then an aircraft inspector, and her mother, Eliza, were living with her at 113 Minstermoorgate. Violet died in 1985 in Beverley.
Violet also lost two brothers in September 1916 on the Somme, Arthur Cyril Dawson of the 5th Yorkshire Regiment was killed in action at Flers Courcelette on the 20th, whilst on the 25th James Duncan Dawson of the 1st Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment was killed near Gueudecourt.
Albert is remembered on the Mercantile Marine Memorial, Tower Hill, London
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |