THOMAS MOOR LEACH WAS BORN IN HULL ON 25/12/1867. SON OF WILLIAM ALLEN & ELIZA LEACH. HIS WIFE EMMALINE LEACH, LIVED AT 6 SARAH TERRACE, ROSAMOND STREET, HULL. A MERCHANT MARINE, FIREMAN. HE DIED OF DISEASE ON 15/04/1915, AGED 49 AND IS BURIED AT HULL’S HEDON ROAD CEMETERY. HIS SON, ALLAN LEACH, DIED AT SEA, ON 04/05/1916, AGED 21.
FRANK FLETCHER WAS BORN HULL 20/09/1894. SON OF HENRY (HARRY) ADDISON FLETCHER & SARAH FLETCHER – 11 ST ANDREWS STREET, HULL. HE SERVED AS A DECKHAND, ON THE TRAWLER ‘CROWNSIN’ , AND WAS LOST AT SEA, ON 04/05/1916, AGED 21. HIS FATHER, HARRY, WAS SKIPPER OF THE TRAWLER ‘ST LAWRENCE’, AND DIED AT SEA, ON 03/10/1914, AGED 44. BORN IN CORNWALL 1870, HENRY ADDISON FLETCHER MARRIED SARAH ANN FLETCHER, AND LIVED AT 14 GALDYS TERRACE, WEST DOCK STREET, HESSLE ROAD. HE LEFT A WIDOW AND THREE CHILDREN UNDER TEN YEARS OLD AND ANOTHER TWO LADS WHO WERE OLD ENOUGH TO GO TO SEA. IT WAS ONLY BY CHANCE THAT HIS SON FRANK DID NOT JOIN HIM ON THE ‘ST LAWRENCE’. BOTH FATHER AND SON ARE LISTED ON THE SUBWAY STREET ROLL OF HONOUR. HARRY FLETCHER HAD BEEN AT SEA SINCE HE WAS A BOY AND ALTHOUGH ONLY 44 YEARS OLD, HAD A SKIPPER’S CERTIFICATE FOR OVER 20 YEARS, SAILING FREQUENTLY TO ICELAND. HE HAD NEVER HAD ANY MISHAP IN CHARGE OF A TRAWLER, BUT AS A MATE IN THE TRAWLER ‘SHAKESPEARE’ WAS SHIP WRECKED OFF THE ORKNEYS SOME YEARS AGO. THE ‘ST LAWRENCE’, WAS NOT HIS REGULAR VESSEL, INDEED THIS WAS HIS FIRST TRIP. THE ‘ST LAWRENCE’ LEFT HULL ON THE 6TH SEPTEMBER 1914, FOR STROMNESS, ON A FOUR WEEK JOURNEY. ITS LOSS AT SEA WAS A MYSTERY. SKIPPER, HARRY FLETCHER’S DEATH AND PHOTOGRAPH WERE REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL ON 26TH OCTOBER 1914. *
