Able Seaman
Norman
THEWLIS
,
MiD
Royal Navy
31
Norman Thewlis was born in Burley, Leeds on 13 June 1911, the son of Turner Thewlis (a rag grinder for a cloth manufacturer in Kirkstall) and Elizabeth Wordle Thewlis (née Ginn). In the 1921 Census the family were listed as being at home at 7, Greenhow Terrace, Leeds. After leaving school he trained as and was employed as, a bookbinder. On 24 November 1934 he married Miss Annie Carson from Kirkstall at the Church of St Mathias, Burley. When the 1939 Register was taken in September 1939 Norman and Annie Thewlis were at home with Norman’s widowed mother and their daughter Patricia. As well as being listed as a bookbinder he was also a member of the local Air Raid Precautions team.
It is not known when Norman Thewlis joined the Royal Navy or submarines but, by November 1941, he was an Able Seaman serving in HMS UNIQUE when he was Mentioned in Despatches – see Supplement to the London Gazette dated 25 November 1941. By that date HMS UNIQUE had carried out sixteen war patrols – mostly in the Mediterranean. After a further four patrols the submarine returned home and was refitted in Sheerness Dockyard from April to July 1942.
After the refit HMS UNIQUE completed trials and a work-up patrol, then a war patrol as escort for an Arctic convoy. The submarine then left the Holy Loch on 7 October 1942 with orders to carry out a patrol in the Bay of Biscay while on passage from Britain to Gibraltar. She was escorted as far as Land’s End on 9 October but was never heard from again. HMS UNIQUE was reported overdue when she failed to arrive at Gibraltar on 24 October 1942. The reason for her loss is still not certain but she may have been lost on 13 October 1942 during a failed attack on the German tanker Spichern in the Bay of Biscay – possibly damaged by a premature explosion of one of her own torpedoes.
Norman Thewlis is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Panel 66, Column 3.
One Response
One of my distant cousins who died on active service doing his bit for the war effort.
I will forever be in awe of all my Thewlis cousins who laid down their lives in the Boer War, World War One and World War Two, God Bless you guys!