Family :

Education & Career :

Second Mate 21st December 1895.
First Mate 18th February 1898.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The ship had been previously attacked by submarine on 18th June, 1917 in the Mediterranean Sea, which although having fired a torpedo, it fortunately missed.

Sadly, only a few months later, his vessel whilst sailing from the Tyne, with a cargo of coal, heading towards Nantes on 19th October when it was sunk due to enemy action. 8 miles S by E 1/2 E from Anvil Point, a Lighthouse at Swanage, on the Dorset coast. First reports at the time said the vessel hit a mine thought to have been laid by the German submarine UC-62. However recent study of the wreck, and study of the original log book from a German submarine tend to show it was sunk and torpedoed, was and torpedoed by German submarine UC-75 under the command of Johannes Lohs, east of Portland Bill.

"On 19 October 1917, the Hazelwood was lost without sending a distress call. There was speculation as to where and how it was lost. Initially it was believed that Hazelwood had struck a German mine laid by German submarine UC-62, the basis for this being a passing vessel, the SS Estonian heard shouts from the water (Pastscape, 2015). Estonian's master, Captain T Jones, reported they were in a position 22.5 miles west of St. Catherine's Light when they heard the shouts in the darkness off the starboard bow, which he believed to be shipwrecked crew. He issued a distress call but could not stop to rescue crew owing to the danger of being attached. Responding patrol boats found the Hazelwood's papers in a bag not far from the position reported by the Estonian and the body of the Hazelwood's steward was found (Wendes, 2006). Some sources suggest that the shouts from the water could also have been after a torpedo strike, and this possibility is plausible when German submarine UC-75's log was subsequently scrutinised indicating that the ship thought originally to have been torpedoed by it, SS Britannia, could have been the Hazelwood (U-boat.net, 1995-2017). Mines had be laid my UC-62 between Anvil point and the Needles on 13 October 1917 (likely a field of 12 mines), nine mines were swept by minesweepers on 15 October 1917. Other sources therefore believe it is likely that it was one of these mines that accounted for for the sinking of the Hazelwood, another one sank the SS Hartburn three days earlier (Wendes, 2006)."

For a detailed report on SS Hazelwood: Forgotten Wrecks of the First World War SS HAZELWOOD Site Report. See also: Wrecksite EU

Detail :

Recorded on the Tower Hill Memorial: PURVIS, 1st Mate Albert Harry. S.S. "Hazlewood" (Middlesborough). Drowned, as a result of an attack by an enemy submarine, 19th Oct., 1917.

Masonic :

The contribution record of the Lodge at the United Grand Lodge of England shows "Lost at Sea 10th Oct 1917". Summons for 19th April 1921 gives the following detail: In Fraternal Remembrance of our Glorious Dead: Bro. A.H. Purvis, Master Mariner. Perished at sea through enemy action December 1917.

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