Birth entry for Kathleen Toohey

This is one of Nenagh’s daughters and I must admit I’d never heard of this story before yesterday. Allow me to share.

Sister Kathleen Toohey was born on 13/04/1911, the daughter of Solicitors clerk Cornelius Toohey & Margaret Dooley. They lived in the Turnpike, Nenagh. 

Kathleen went to England and joined the nursing staff of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. Kathleen was Gazetted on 26/08/1942 with staff no. 241732. Kathleen was posted to Capetown and allocated ticket 340 on board SS Ceramic. She was one of 30 QAIMNS Nursing sisters onboard.

The 18,400 ton Ceramic was launched in 1912 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast. She was the first ship built by the White Star Line after the Titanic.  She spent her years sailing the Liverpool to Australia route and was known as the :relief of Bootle" as she ferried the local unemployed to new lives in Australia. The ship left Merseyside on 26/11/1942 bound for St Helena, Durban and ultimately Sydney. They were part of convoy ON-149. Ceramic sailed with Convoy ON 149 until it dispersed as scheduled in the North Atlantic. She then continued unescorted as planned first heading West because of the threat of enemy attack and hoping to avoid any Wolf Packs operating out of France.

At midnight 06/7th of December the Ceramic was struck by three torpedoes which put the engine out of commission and plunged the ship into darkness. It was a cold night with rough seas. Nevertheless, there was no panic and eight fully laden lifeboats were launched. The ship remained afloat. Three hours after the first strike, the U-boat hit Ceramic with two additional torpedoes which broke her in two and sank her.

The Ceramic had been torpedoed by U-515 operating out of Lorient in Northern France and commanded by Kapitanleutnant Werner Henke. They were 29 days into a 61 day patrol. This was their second such patrol. They had already sunk one ship and disabled a second on this outing. Henke left the area and radioed his success to Headquarters. Their response was to order Henke to return to the area to pick up survivors for interrogation. Intelligence wanted to know where the ship had been heading.

It was middle of Winter in the Atlantic, the lifeboats were subjected to high waves from rough seas. They were at least 450 miles from the nearest landfall, the Azores. It was raining heavily and the boats were constantly being swamped, necessitating bailing out of water. Henke returned at midday. It’s reported that a lifeboat was seen with survivors. Henke ordered to only take the nearest survivor to the U-boat. At this stage the weather was reaching Force 10 and stormy.  U-515 left the area with one survivor only plucked from the water - Sapper Eric Munday of the Royal Engineers. He would remain a prisoner until the end of the war. meanwhile, the weather was now so severe, neutral rescue ships were unable to launch from the Azores. On the 9th of December. the Portuguese Destroyer Dao searched the area for survivors but none were found. There 654 casualties.

Henke himself was captured on 09/04/1944 when his ship was sunk by Depth Charges dropped from Aircraft. He was interrogated in Virginia and advised he was to be extradited to Britain to be tried as a war criminal for the shooting of survivors of the Ceramic. His response was to deliberately walk towards the perimeter wire of the Internment Camp and start climbing. He was “shot whilst trying to escape’ on 15/06/1944. He is buried in Fort Meade in the Soldiers Cemetery.

Kathleen is remembered on the Brookwood Military Memorial, Woking, Surrey on Panel 22, Column 3. She was 31 when she died.

Brookwood Memorial, Surrey

CWGC entry for Kathleen Toohey