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Doswell, Algernon Michael, son of Algernon George Doswell, accountant, of Sydenham, Kent; b. 1 June 1918; adm. Sept. 1931 (G); left July 1936; Univ. of Lond., fenced for the University 1939; MN radio officer, lost in the Norwegian SS Polyana, sunk by enemy action Apr. 1941.
Algernon Michael Doswell was born at Torquay, Devon on the 1st of June 1918 the only son of George Algernon Doswell, an accountant for a railway company, and Hilda Elizabeth (nee Fortune) Doswell of 17, Crescent Wood Road, Camberwell in Kent, later of 22, Ingleby Road, Ilford in Essex. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Grant’s from September 1931 to July 1936. He was a member of the Fencing team in 1934 and 1935, winning the Foil Medal in 1935, and was appointed as Captain. He represented the school in the Public Schools Fencing Championship in April 1934. He went on to the University of London where he studied Architecture and fenced for the university in 1939.
He trained as a wireless operator with the General Post Office from the 6th of May 1940 before enlisting in the Merchant Navy. He was posted to the steam merchant SS Polyana.
The SS Polyana, under the command of Master Karl Jacobsen, set sail from Sutherland on the 22nd of March 1941 bound for Oban where she was to join a convoy. She set sail from Oban on the 7th of April 1941 as part of Convoy OG-58 but detached from the convoy on the 14th of April 1941 and sailed on unescorted bound for Freetown where she was due to arrive on the 30th of April.
At 11.57pm on the 24th of April 1941, the SS Polyana was sailing alone, about 250 miles to the west south west of Cape Verde Island, when the U Boat U-103, under the command of Korvettenkapitän Viktor Schütze, fired a torpedo at her which missed. At 12.38am on the 25th of April 1941 U-103 fired a second torpedo which struck her close to the bridge and she sank about one minute later with the loss of her entire crew of twenty five.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record the date of his death as having occurred on the 23rd of April 1941 but all other records have the loss of the SS Polyana as having occurred on the 25th of April 1941.
He is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial Panel 82.
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Radio Officer; SS Polyana, Merchant Navy
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International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition
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Prepared for import into AtoM by Westminster School Archive staff, 2019-2020. Updated by Bethany Duck, Archives Assistant, September 2022.
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Sources
The Record of Old Westminsters: A biographical list of all those who are known to have been educated at Westminster School from Play 1919 to Election 1989, Volume 4, compiled by F.E. Pagan and H.E. Pagan, Padstow, 1992.
Westminster School Second World War Memorial by John C. Hamblin, 2022.