Current Information:

Age-22

6, Church Path Cottages, Woodside Lane, North Finchley

The Steam Ship Laurentic started life as a trans-Atlantic liner of the Dominion Line on the Liverpool-Canada route but when the war broke out she was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted into an armed cruiser and became HMS Laurentic. She was used as a troop carrying ship and on 23rd January, 1917 she left Liverpool bound for Canada carrying nearly 500 passengers, most of whom were naval personnel, as well as a large cargo of gold to purchase war munitions.

On 25th January she hit two mines, laid by the German submarine U-80, off the northern coast of Ireland near Lough Swilly and within an hour the ship sunk. Many were able to get off the ship into the lifeboats but the extreme cold, as low as -13 Centigrade, meant that many of them froze to death and only 121 out of 475 aboard survived. One of those who lost their lives was John Gentle.