| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Mark Rennie’s connection with Beverley came through his marriage in late 1914 at a registry office in Hull to Dorothy Southwick, born in Beverley in Aug 1889. She was from the Flemingate/Sparkmill Lane area of Beverley, from Figham Farm owned by her family. Their only child, Jessie D. Rennie was born on 9 Aug 1916. The family lived at 5 Highgate. Mark himself had been born in the Ecclesall district of Sheffield on 19 Oct 1887. He was one of seven children born to Thomas Edward Rennie, a draper born in Leeds, and his wife Elizabeth from York. Mark was brought up in Whitby where his father owned a shop and where his mother ran a boarding house. His parents later moved to Mexborough where his father became an insurance agent.
Mark joined the Merchant Navy. In 1908 he was given the Certificate of Competency as Second Mate for overseas voyages, issued in Hull. In 1910 he won the First Mate certificate. He made a few trans-Atlantic voyages on the SS Virginian. On 11 Nov 1914 he was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve, later becoming a lieutenant. He worked on the Q Ships. These ships were allocated to the port of Queenstown - hence their name - in Ireland, now Cobh. They were merchant ships that had been armed with guns but which were hidden or disguised. The role of a Q Ship was to attract German U-Boats and tempt them to rise to the surface and sink the merchant vessel by shellfire. Once the U-boat had risen, the Q Ship would uncover its guns and try to sink the submarine. Mark was in command of HMS Vala (Q8) in the Bay of Biscay on 21 Aug 1917 when she was hit by a German torpedo and sunk. Mark was lost at sea along with 42 others. He was awarded the 1915 Star and the War and Victory Medals.
Mark is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial for sailors lost at sea. He is also on the Hengate and East Riding Memorials in Beverley. In Beverley Minster a brass commemorative wall plaque in his memory was also put in place. His widow lived here until 1975, his only child until 2003. |