Bewley, George Barry Neville (Barry)

Third Radio Officer

MV Eulima (London), Canadian Merchant Navy      

Died as a result of enemy action on Tuesday 23 February 1943 (aged 18)

No known grave

Commemorated:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Halifax Memorial, Nova Scotia, Canada (Panel 23)

Bangor and District War Memorial

BIOGRAPHY

George Barry Neville (Barry) Bewley was born on 27 April 1924 in Montreal, Canada and he was the eldest son of John (Jack) Neville Bewley and Sarah (Sally) Bewley (nee Stokes).  Jack Bewley was an Englishman, Sarah Stokes was from Belfast (her father James was a mineral water manufacturer) and they met in Canada where Jack was working for a biscuit making company.

In 1925 Sarah Bewley brought Barry, her infant son, to Belfast and her husband Jack followed soon thereafter.  The Bewley family lived for a time in Primrose Street, Bangor and George Barry Neville Bewley was baptised in Millisle Parish Church of Ireland Church (St. Patrick’s).

Jack Bewley joined the Civil Service and he worked in the Law Courts.  He and Sarah had three more children:

Kenneth

Margaret Helen Joyce (born 7 February 1929)

Patricia Rosalind (born 4 March 1931)

The two girls were baptised in Carrowdore Parish Church of Ireland Church (Christ Church).

Barry Bewley was educated at Bangor Central Public Elementary School, Bangor Technical College and Belfast Mercantile College.  In July 1937, aged 13, he was selected to go with other pupils to the King’s Hall in Belfast to meet King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

During the Second World War George Barry Neville Bewley served with the Canadian Merchant Navy aboard the motor vessel MV Eulima.  Built in 1937 by Wilton Feijenoord, Schiedam, Netherlands and owned by the Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company Ltd., London she operated as a fuel tanker.  In February 1943 she was on route from Liverpool to New York in Convoy ON-166.  The ship was in ballast and on 23 February 1943 she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-186 and sank around 10.30 am in the North Atlantic, some 300 miles south of Cape Race in Newfoundland.  More than 60 men aboard were killed.  Less than three months later, on 12 May 1943, U-186 was depth-charged and sunk by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Hesperus.

Initially, Third Radio Officer George Barry Neville Bewley was reported as missing and so, for a time, his family hoped that he might be found alive.  Later it was officially confirmed that he must be presumed to have been killed.    Aged 18 when he died, Third Radio Officer George Barry Neville Bewley is commemorated on the Halifax Memorial in Nova Scotia and on Bangor and District War Memorial.