Henry Hantman

Fireman & Trimmer, S. S. Otterpool
Died 20 Jun 1940
Commemorated at Tower Hill Memorial
Age 30


Isadore Henry was born on 2 June 1914 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear to Russian born father Maurice (Moshe), a draper, and Northumberland born mother Emmeline Hughes and he had five siblings. His younger brother Samuel was killed serving in the 3rd Battalion of the Welsh Guards on 11 February 1944 and he is buried in Cassino War Cemetery, Italy. Hantman, Samuel | Remembering the Jews of WW2

The family lived in Newcastle until 1921 when they moved to Cardiff, Wales where Henry attended Howard Garden High school and the Cathedral Road Synagogue classes. His father Maurice was the chairman of the Cardiff Jewish Institute and Social club. On 28 September 1935, Henry married Violet Bergelin in Dublin, Ireland and his marriage certificate states that he worked in the neon tube industry. In 1939, Henry and Violet were living in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and he was working as a manager in a factory furniture department.

Henry enlisted early in the war into the Merchant Navy and was a fireman and trimmer on board the ship S.S. Otterpool. On June 20, 1940, the ship was travelling from Algeria to the Tees in Middlesborough carrying 8,180 tons of iron ore when she was torpedoed by a U-boat, U-30, off the Scilly Isles. Twenty-two of her 38-man crew were lost, with 16 crew members picked up by HMS Scarborough and landed at Liverpool.

Photo courtesy of Martin Sugarman
Jewish Chronicle