| 1. | Edward Claude Bernard (Capt) Bosanquet was born about 1885 in Queensland, Australia; died on 12 Sep 1918 in at Sea on GALWAY CASTLE. Notes:
Capt. Edward Claude Bernard Bosanquet and Dorothy Stockenstrom Bosanquet neé HUTTON died by drowning on 12 September 1918 whilst on board SS Galway Castle. He was 33 years and she 29 years 10 months. On 18 June 1919, the Supreme Court on circuit appointed Andries Stockenstrom Hutton and Lennox Llewellyn Giddy Executor Dative to Administer the Estate and Tutor Dative of the minor child, Rita Noel Bosanquet.
The will was extensive and took a while to settle (final account 1920).
Inter alia it included the farm “Governor’s Kop”, in the Albany District (originally granted to William Thackwray on 4 June 1832; and on which there was a mortgage bond of £15,000 in favour of Andries Hutton) and the comfortable residue left to Rita Noel by her father and mother individually.
GALWAY CASTLE was built in 1911 by Harland & Wolff at Belfast with a tonnage of 7988grt, a length of 452ft 4in, a beam of 54ft 4in and a service speed of 13 knots. Similar to the Grantully Castle she was the last ship to be delivered before the company was taken over by Royal Mail. In August 1914 she was requisitioned as a troop ship for deployment in the German West Africa campaign against Windhoek. After the German colony was taken over by General Botha in 1915 she reverted to commercial service as the only remaining Union-Castle vessel. On 3rd August 1916 she was attacked by a German bomber near the Gull lightship but the bomb, although scoring a direct hit, failed to explode. She went aground on the Orient Bank at East London on 12th October 1917 but was refloated five days later without any damage. At 07.30 hrs on 12th September 1918 when two days out from Plymouth, she was torpedoed by U-82 and broke her back. At the time she was carrying 400 South Africand walking wounded, 346 passengers and 204 crew members. So severe was the damage that it was thought that she would sink immediately and it appeared that U-82 was lining up for another attack. In the rush to abandon ship, several lifeboats were swamped by the heavy seas and many finished up in the sea. However, the U-boat did not mount a further attack and the Galway Castle continued to wallow for three days. Destroyers were summoned by radio to rescue survivors who were taken back to Plymouth where it was ascertained that 143 persons had perished. HMS Spitfire remained in attendance and took off the skeleton crew before she finally sank.
The following account appears in Grocott’s Penny Mail dated Wednesday, 13th November 1918 :
Lost on the Galway Castle – Capt. and Mrs.Bosanquet drown – Their only child saved
The torpedoing of the liner “Galway Castle” on her outward journey last week (says the mail edition of the Hampshire Observer) has come home with terrible force to a well-known Winchester family. Among the passengers were Capt. and Mrs. Bosanquet, late of the R>G>A> (second son of the late Mr.Edward Bosanquet of Narellum, New South Wales, and of Mrs. Bosaquet, of 72, St. Cross-road,Winchester and grandson of the late Rev. Stanley Bosanquet, rector of Old Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire), and his wife and their little girl, a child of nine months. Capt. and Mrs. Bosanquet both lost their lives, but the child was saved and is now with her grandmother at Winchester. When the disaster occurred the child was given by her parents to Mrs. Dale Lace, of Johannesburg, who jumped into a boat with her, keeping her as well as she could until picked up by a destroyer where the little one was tenderly looked after by the sailors. At Plymouth she was handed over to the charge of Miss Dealbridge and taken by
her to London, where she was taken the greatest care of by Mr. and Mrs. Mariggi, of the St. Pancras Hotel. They wired the Hon. Mrs. Joyce, of Winchester, who was closely associated with emigration work, as a result of which Mrs. Bosanquet was communicated with, and at the beginning of week, her
daughter (the late Captain’s sister [ probably D G Nxon.ed.] went up to London and fetched the little girl, who, it is pleasing to learn, is none the worse for the terrible experience it went through, but on the contrary is remarkably well. The cheerful presence of the bright little child is some consolation to Mrs.
Bosanquet in her bitter grief for the loss of her son and daughter-in-law under such tragic circumstances.
Capt. Bosanqet was 33 years of age, and his wife about 4 years younger. He was educated at Fritham House School, New Forest, and Oakham. He went out to South Africa 14 years ago and became a large and prosperous farmer in the neighbourhood of Grahamstown. In the early days of the War he enlisted
as a trooper in the Imperial Light Horse of South Africa, and went all through the South-West African campaign under General Botha, rising to commissioned rank. When that memorable [event] was over he married Dorothy, only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Andries Hutton, of Grahamstown , and then came to England bringing his wife with him. Arriving in the homeland he obtained a commission in the R.G.A., and was sent to Falmouth, where he remained fo
r the rest of his military career and rose to the rank of Captain. Mrs Banquet accompanied her husband to Falmouth, and it was there that their little child was born last Christmastide, and was named Rita Noel. A few months ago, on being invalided out of the army, Capt. Bosanquet was offered a free passage to South Africa, but as he could not obtain permission to take his wife and child with him, he naturally declined the offer and decided to wait until an opportunity occurred of all going together. They therefore came to Winchester and took rooms at St. Cross near his home. As, however, he was anxious to get back to his farm, he availed himself of the earliest opportunity of a joint passage, and thus it was they became passengers on the ill-fated “ Galway Castle”
Died:
Description: when torpedoed in the English Channel
Edward married Dorothy Stockenstrom Hutton on 26 Aug 1915 in Grahamstown Cathedral (St Michael and St George), Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Dorothy (daughter of Andries Stockenström Hutton and Alice Blanche Mary Giddy) was born on 30 Nov 1888; died on 12 Sep 1918 in at Sea on GALWAY CASTLE. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
Children:
- 2. Rita Noèl Bosanquet
 was born on 10 Dec 1917 in Alexandra Nursing Home, Falmouth, Cornwall, England; died on 29 Apr 1981 in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
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Abt 1885 - 1918 (33 years)
