Chief Engineer Officer John MACDONALD
M.V. Stork Merchant Marine

Date of birth: 5th February 1888
Date of death: 23rd August 1941

Killed in action aged 53
Commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial Panel 103
John Macdonald was born at Elgin on the 5th of February 1888 the son of Peter Macdonald and Margaret Macdonald of Dingby Cottage, Knockando. He was the husband of Alice Mary Macdonald of 55 Maze Hill, London SE10. He spent most of his life before the war at sea, principally sailing between the UK and India

On the 13th of August 1941 the 787 ton M.V. Stork, commanded by Master Evan Atterbury, with a crew of twenty two left Liverpool bound for Gibraltar with a cargo of cased aviation fuel as part of Convoy OG-71. On the 17th of August the convoy was spotted by a Focke-Wulf 200 Condor which alerted eight U Boats in the area to its presence.

At 2.14am on the 23rd of August 1941 the MV Stork was sailing off the coast of Portugal, to the northwest of Lisbon when the U Boat U-201, under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Aldabert Schnee, fired a spread of four torpedoes at the convoy. The SS Aldergrove and the MV Stork were both hit. The Stork sank in fifteen minutes with the loss of nineteen of its crew. Three survivors were picked up by the corvette HMS Campion. The convoy also lost another seven merchant ships and two naval escorts with over four hundred seamen being lost during the attack.
Knockando

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