Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

The Register (Adelaide)  14-10-1918
TRAGIC END TO PATRIOTIC CAREER.
A cable received last week by the Hon. H. Tassie, M.L.C., reported the death of his brother-in-law (Mr. Ernest H. Medland), on October 1, as the result of the vessel, engaged in Admiralty service, upon which he was chief officer, having been torpedoed. Mr. Medland retired from seafaring life some years ago, and entered the service of the State Government; he held the position of superintendent at the Boys' Training Home at North Booborowie, and on the disbandment of the home he was re-transferred to the Stores Department at Port Adelaide. At the outbreak of war, he volunteered for service in the Naval Department of the Commonwealth, and having been informed that he would soon be called upon, sold up his home in readiness. No call came, and a year later in response to an advertised invitation by the department to men holding ocean-going masters' certificates to make their services available, he again offered, but was informed that he could not be accepted unless he joined a union. Declining to adopt that course, and anxious, while unfitted for the army, to "do his bit" in war service, he accepted appointment on an oil vessel of the British Imperial Oil Company in the service of the Admiralty.
For nearly 12 months during the height of the submarine activity in the Mediterranean he made constant trips in those waters, and had numerous thrilling experiences. Recalled by cable to England, he left the boat at Marseilles, and on the next trip the vessel was torpedoed and all hands except one officer and an engineer were lost. Later, off the coast of the Untied Kingdom, while in charge of the bridge, he observed a torpedo coming straight for his vessel. Rapid manoeuvring although unavailing to prevent the boat from being struck, averted, to some extent, the threatened destruction, and although badly damaged, the craft was steamed back to port, a result upon which Mr. Medland was congratulated and received a decoration. The name of the steamer upon which his last trip was made has not been disclosed. Mr. Medland was a member of the Adelaide Lodge of Freemasons, of the Mark and Royal Arch Chapter, S.A. He has left a widow and a daughter. Mrs. Medland is a trained nurse. At the same time as her husband volunteered she offered her services to the District Trained Nursing Association, to take the place of any nurse going on active service, and for nearly three years has been serving in the district of Prospect.

Arca [Official Number-135147] was a 4,839 GRT steam tanker completed  in December 1912 at a cost of £63,500 by Palmer’s Shipbuilding & Iron Co Ltd, Jarrow for Anglo Saxon Petroleum Co. Ltd. Launched: 30 August 1912 and entered service in December 1917. She was one of a group of ships requisitioned by the Admiralty December 1917 to augment the ships of the Royal Fleet Auxilliary.  She was sunk in the Atlantic on 2 October 1918 by a torpedo from German submarine U-118  approximately 40 nautical miles North-West by West of Torry Island. She was en route from Philadelphia to Portishead with a cargo of benzine. She had survived an earlier attack by UC-75 on 6 January 1918 while on passage from Southampton to Devonport about 10 miles SW of Start Point but arrived at Devonport safely.

He was 44 and the husband of Lily Medland (nee Dellow), of "Lindisfarne," Chevalier St., Prospect, South Australia.

He was born at Woodford, then in Essex; Woodford births were at that time recorded in West Ham.

Births Sep 1873   Medland Ernest Henry W. Ham 4a 95