Albert Kirkpatrick survived the sinking of HMS Spartan off Anzio. He kept an interesting weekly date at St Columb’s Cathedral, Derry. On this day in 1943 Albert Harrison from Belfast and Samuel Mahood from Banbridge were lost in HMS Avondale, and exactly a year later, three NI men were lost in HMS Spartan. That same day Stuart Lovell from Portrush died over France. His brother Wing. Cdr. Anthony Desmond Lovell, D.S.O. and Bar, D.F.C. and Bar, D.F.C. (American), also died on service the following year. Today’s veteran is a Queen’s University medical officer who served during the Boer War and WW1 and whose grave is on St Helena.
