Frank Richard Hackney was born on 8 July 1924, the eldest of the five children of Frank Ernest Hackney (1900-1975) and Elizabeth May Hackney née Starling (1900-1989). His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1924 in the Shoreditch registration district. His father was a printer's cutter who during World War One had served as an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy.
Electoral registers from 1925 show his father listed at 35 Herbert Street, Hoxton and his father was still there at the time of the compilation of the 1939 England and Wales Register.
His siblings; Ronald A. Hackney (1926-2009), Jean Elizabeth Hackney (1929-1991), Sheila F. Hackney (b.1934) and Roy G. Hackney (b.1943) were all born in Shoreditch.
He joined in the Royal Navy and was rated as an Able Seaman when he died, aged 20 years, on 10 November 1944 whilst serving aboard HM Tug Empire Wold, a defensibly-equipped merchant ship.
The tug is believed to have foundered in heavy seas and 40 knot winds off the coast of Iceland where it was stationed, not far from the capital Reykjavik, while attempting to assist the British tanker 'Shirvan' and the Icelandic passenger ship 'Godafoss' which had both been torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-300.
He was one of the seven Royal Navy hands that were lost. The nine members of the Merchant Navy that were also lost are commemorated on the WW2 Mercantile Marine Memorial at Tower Hill that also lists the 13 seamen that were aboard the S.S. Shirvan.
As he has no known grave he is listed on Panel 75, Column 2, of The Chatham Naval Memorial, King's Bastion, Chatham, Gillingham, Kent.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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