Charles West

He was born in London in 1884 as an illegitimate child though his parents married the following year. He was educated at Prior Park College, Bath - a school founded by the Christian Brothers. In April 1898 he joined HMS Conway - a naval training establishment in Liverpool. In 1900 he gained an ordinary certificate and became a crew member of the sailing ship 'Pythomene'. Later ships he crewed on were the 'Lincairn' and 'Ocean Monarch'. In 1911 he was in San Francisco helping at the City Rescue Mission. There his first child, Gwendolene, was born in 1912 - the mother being Mary Teresa (Minnie) Carney (aka Minnie Rork - probably from a previous marriage). They travelled to London and in 1913 his son, Charles Pelham, was born there in May 1913. A month later Mary died. He then appears to have abandoned his two children by joining the army, initially as a private in the East Kent Regiment but then later transferring to the Royal Engineers. His medal roll card also shows that in 1918 he had been promoted to Lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment. After the First World War he seems to have travelled to Australia and New Zealand and obtained a sea captain's certificate.

In 1923 he was a crew member of the Amy Turner which sank in a cyclone off Guam. He and 3 other crew members managed to climb into a small open lifeboat where they survived for 28 days and 1600 miles before making land on the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines. The details of this amazing voyage are covered in L Vernon Briggs' ' Around Cape Horn To Honolulu On The Bark Amy Turner' as well as the contemporaneous Australian newspapers - notably the Melbourne Herald. Also, the logbook, containing details of the 28 day journey, is now held in the Australian Archives.

A naval court enquiry was held in Manila a few days after the survivors reached the Philippines and included in the final report was this paragraph :
'That the ultimate safety of the survivors is in the opinion of the Court primarily due to the skill and energy of Charles West who, holding a Master's certificate, was responsible for the navigation of the boat, with only a sextant and Marine Almanac, during a voyage of some 1,600 miles in 28 days'. For his actions he was awarded a gold watch by a 'Commonwealth Government' (presumably Australia).

The return of the survivors to Melbourne made headline news in the local newspapers (see above).

In 1924 he married Constance Reimann in Auckland, NZ and he died in Lower Hutt, near Wellington in 1946. He is buried in the Soldier's section of the Old Taita Cemetery in Lower Hutt - his headstone bears the enigmatic wording 'Pte C West'.