Laurie, Anthony Roger, son of Albert Stevenson Laurie of Amendas, S. Rhodesia, and Kathleen Komareck, d. of Bretton Priestley of Wrotham, Kent; b. 22 July 1918; adm. May 1932 (G); left July 1934; Wye Agricultural Coll.; enlisted RAF Sept. 1940; Sub. Lieut. (A) RNVR 1941, Lieut. (A) Aug. 1942; DSC (Arctic Convoy) 1942; lost in HMS Avenger, torpedoed after North African landings Nov. 1942.
Anthony Roger Laurie was born at Kodiakanal in South India on the 22nd of July 1918 the son of Albert Stephenson Laurie, an engineer, India Public Works Department, and Kathleen Komareck (nee Priestley) Laurie of 62, Vanburgh Park, Blackheath in London. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Grant’s from May 1932 to July 1934. He went on to Wye Agricultural College after which he worked as a representative. He was awarded a Royal Aero Club Certificate (No. 18891) at Horton Kirby Flying Club on the 28th of June 1939 while flying a DH Moth aircraft. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1940 but transferred to the Fleet Air Arm and was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant (A) in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in 1941. He was posted to 802 Naval Air Squadron based on board the escort carrier HMS Avenger (D14) and was promoted to Lieutenant (A) on the 15th of August 1942.
On the 2nd of September 1942, HMS Avenger left Loch Ewe to provide an escort to Convoy PQ-18 as the first escort carrier to escort an Arctic convoy. The convoy sailed to Seidisfiord in Iceland where it was joined by more vessels, swelling its numbers to forty merchantmen accompanied by a large number of escorts. On the 6th of September an enemy Focke Wulf 200 Condor attacked HMS Avenger with bombs but missed. British Naval Intelligence identified the enemy forces ranged against the convoy as consisting of twenty U-Boats, ninety two torpedo bombers and one hundred and twenty bombers, the largest force assembled against an Arctic convoy at that point in the war. Over the next week, the enemy threw great numbers of bombers and torpedo bombers against the convoy during which time Anthony Laurie was credited with the destruction of two Heinkel 111s and with damaging one other. The bulk of the surviving ships from PQ18 arrived at Archangel on the 21st of Spetember 1942.
He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his work on Arctic convoys, which was announced in the London Gazette of the 1st of December 1942.
On the 16th of October 1942, HMS Avenger, under the command of Commander Anthony Paul Colthurst RN, left Scapa Flow for Greenock with Sea Hurricane Mk IIb aircraft from 802 Squadron and 833 Squadron on board and with three Swordfish aircraft from B Flight, 833 Squadron. She was tasked with providing air cover for one of the convoys carrying troops and supplies for Operation Torch, the Allied landings at Algeria. When the ship arrived off the Algerian coast on the 8th of November her aircraft supported the landings by flying some sixty missions over the bridgehead. Aircraft from the carrier attacked enemy coastal defences as well as the airfields at Maison Blanche and at Blida.
The following day HMS Avenger was attacked by a Heinkel III which made a torpedo attack which narrowly missed the ship. On the 10th of November she transferred her aircraft to the escort carrier HMS Argus before docking at Algiers for repairs to be made to her engines. On the early morning of the 12th of November she set sail, joining Convoy MKF-1A, which was comprised mostly of empty ships which had taken part in the operations and were heading home. The convoy reached Gibraltar on the morning of the 14th of November and set sail once again at 6pm that evening bound for the UK.
At 3.05am on the 15th of November 1943, HMS Avenger was sailing some 45 nautical miles to the south of Cape Santa Maria, to the west of Gibraltar when the convoy received orders to make an immediate turn to starboard as a U-Boat had been detected in the area. Shortly afterwards the convoy was attacked by the U Boat U-155, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Adolf Piening, which fired three torpedoes. The first one hit the American transport ship USS Almaack with the second hitting the passenger transport ship HMTS Ettrick. The third torpedo hit HMS Avenger amidships on the port side at 3.20am which struck the bomb room and caused the ammunition stored there to explode. This secondary explosion broke the back of the ship and she sank in under five minutes
Anthony Laurie was one of five hundred and sixteen men who died when the ship sank. Only twelve members of her crew were rescued by the destroyer HMS Glaisdale (L44) after searching all night.
Lieutenant Commander N.F. Kingscote, Commanding Officer of the infantry landing ship HMS Ulster Monarch, wrote the following in a letter to the Admiralty: -
"At 0315, a vivid reddish flash appeared on the starboard side of Avenger stretching the whole length of the ship and lasting for about 2 seconds. This flash made a perfect silhouette of the ship, and was followed by a pall of black smoke. After the flash, nothing more was seen of Avenger but one or two small twinkling lights were observed in the water, obviously from floats. HMS Ulster Monarch passed over the position of Avenger within 3 minutes and nothing was seen...."
He is commemorated on the Lee-on-Solent Memorial Bay 3, Panel 7.
