Current Information:

Age-22

18, Hatton Street,  St John's Wood

The Warilda, built in Glasgow, was originally an Australia passenger ship  but was requisitioned in 1915 and served as a troopship bringing soldiers from Australia to the Middle East and to England. In 1916 she was converted into a hospital ship and as HMAT Warilda, she  was  put to work transporting patients across the English Channel. Between late 1916 and August 1918 she made over 180 trips from France to England, carrying approximately 80,000 patients.

On 3rd August, 1918 she was transporting wounded soldiers from Le Havre to Southampton when she was torpedoed in mid channel by the German submarine UC-49, despite being marked clearly with the Red Cross and within two hours she had sunk, She had 801 people on board 123 of whom lost their lives, including all the engine room staff, and many of the patients from the wards on the lowest decks. One of these was Henry Biddle of the Royal Field Artillery.