Family :

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902, South Africa.
• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

Egypt was the base for the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force which was engaged in the region, primarily against the Turks. In the early stages of the war Egypt was threatened by Turkish advances towards Suez which were defeated and the Turks retreated to Palestine. Most of the effort of the MEF was thereafter directed towards operations in Palestine and Syria. Many of those buried and commemorated in Egypt succumbed to wounds, disease or were army victims of naval actions in the region.

Detail :

MASON, David Richard, Lieutenant Commander, HMS Osmanieh David Richard Mason was a Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve. David was the Husband of Selina Rachel Mason, of Ivy Bank, Tenby. He had been educated at the King Edward VI School, Norwich, and at the age of 14 was apprenticed to sea. He served on board the Steamship Ellisland from 1895 to 1899, and then as Second Officer on the Fleur-De-Lys on which he was promoted Chief Officer in 1900. On the outbreak of the Boer War, he returned to Wales and joined the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry, where he was promoted to Sergeant, and gained the Queen's Medal with Five Clasps for service in South Africa. On returning home he entered into his father's business, Frank B. Mason, Auctioneers, and in 1905 he married Selina Rachel Stanley-Johnson, the daughter of Thomas Stanley-Johnson and Mrs. Stanley-Johnson of Stanley House, Hereford. David returned to sea as Second Officer on the Steamship Emma of Cardiff, and then the Eddystone of London. David then entered the service of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and by the outbreak of war had been promoted to Command of the R.M.S.P. Yare. In January, 1915 he offered his services to the Admiralty and was given a temporary commission as Lieutenant. Again he worked his way up to Lieutenant-Commander, and was Mentioned in Despatched on the 14th September, 1917. By now David was serving aboard the H.M.S. Osmanieh, and he was sadly killed in action on the 31st December, 1917 when the Osmanieh struck a mine off Alexandria. She was carrying troops and a large party of medical staff to Egypt, over a thousand in all. At 10.30 a.m. as she was approaching the swept channel leading to Alexandria she detonated a mine which exploded on the starboard side, amidships. She sank rapidly, with the loss of 209 people, including 8 female nurses. The mine she had struck had been laid by UC.34. He was Mentioned in Despatches He was 38 years old, and is buried in Alexandria (Hadra) War Memorial Cemetery. He had left behind his bereaved wife, a son and a daughter.

Masonic :

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley