Person

Born on 4 January 1900 to merchant seaman George Wilyman and his wife, Mary Jane, the daughter of a Hartlepool sailor, it was not surprising that Alfred too went to sea.

Alfred signed on as a boy sailor at the end of 1915 and served his time on the ships HMS Ganges, Maidstone and Pembroke. On his 18th birthday he signed up for twelve years and was taken on as an able seaman on the Almanzora. The Almanzora was part of the Northern Patrol (10th Cruiser Squadron), Central Atlantic Convoys and AB Wilyman would have left with the vessel from Liverpool on 12 February 1918 making for Rio de Janeiro, where they arrived at the end of March. After a general issue of soap and tobacco to the ship’s crew, the captain exchanged pennants with a Brazilian cruiser and set sail for Santos. Leaving Brazil on 20 April the next port of call was Barry, North Wales, which they reached on 12 May and remained for four weeks, before returning to Rio.

The next port was to be Avonmouth, the port for Bristol, where the ship arrived on 21 August and remained until 2 September and then taking twelve days to make land in Sierra Leona, West Africa. It was to be on the next journey of the ship into Freetown on 1 November 1918, after eight deaths from pneumonia on board, that Alfred Wilyman died. It seems likely that this was an outbreak of the Spanish ‘Flu.

The funeral was held at 3.50pm the following day and Alfred is buried in King Tom Cemetery, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Naval Histories.net website, page with transcript of log book for Almanzora:
https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-08-HMS_Almanzora.htm

Civil Parish: Hartlepool

Birth date: 04-Jan-1900

Death date: 01-Nov-1918

Armed force/civilian: Navy

Residence: West Hartlepool (birthplace)
47 Thornton Street, West Hartlepool (1911 census)

Employment: Stableman (naval register)
able seaman (naval register)

Family: Parents: Peter Charles Wilyman, Mary Jane Wilyman nee Audas
Siblings: Charles Albert Wilyman, Ellen Gibbons Wilyman, Clarence Wilyman, Sydney Wilyman

Military service:

J46050, able seaman

Medal(s): British War Medal
Victory Medal

Memorial(s): Freetown (King Tom) Cemetery, Sierra Leone
Roll of Honour of Men of West Hartlepool

Gender: Male

Contributed by Jean Longstaff, Durham