BORN HULL 1883. SON OF JOSEPH BONNER & CHARLOTTE GOLIGHTLY. HIS FATHER WAS A MARINE, FIREMAN, FROM DURHAM.
WILLIAM MARRIED ALICE JILLINGS, AT SCULCOATES IN 1910. THEY LIVED AT 71 , QUEENS ROAD, HULL,
HE WAS INDENTURED INTO THE MERCHANT NAVY AS AN APPRENTIICE, ON 06/05/1897, AGED 14. HE SERVED AS CHIEF OFFICER. LOST ON THE STEAM SHIP “ZARA”, TORPEDOED ON 13/04/1917.
HE LEFT £218 IN HIS WILL TO HIS WIDOW ALICE, AT THIS PROBATE ADDRESS.
HE IS COMMEMORATED ON THE HULL MERCHANT NAVY RECORDS AND TOWER HILL NAVAL MEMORIAL, LONDON.
SS Zara, built by Wm. Hamilton & Co., Port Glasgow in 1897 and owned at the time of her loss by Ellerman’s Wilson Line, Ltd., Hull, was a British steamer of 1.331 tons. On April 13th, 1917, Zara, on a voyage from London to Trondhjem with general cargo, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-30 (Franz Grünert), 90 miles W3/4S of Helliso Island. 27 persons were lost. Read more at wrecksite: https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?60007
