Apprentice Edward William OXSPRING (146266)
MV Domala, Merchant Navy

Date of birth: 21st December 1921
Date of death: 2nd March 1940

Killed in action aged 18
Commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial Panel 35
He was born in Hong Kong on the 21st of December 1921 the only child of Major George Ernest Oxspring OBE, Royal Army Vetinary Corps, and Mabel Bernice (nee Edwards) of Barrow Hill House, Ashford in Kent.

He was educated at Churcher's College, Petersfield, at Ashford Grammar School in 1937 and then attended the King’s School Canterbury from September 1937 to October 1939 where he was in Marlowe House.

On leaving school he joined the British India Steam Navigation Company as an apprentice Cadet and by March 1940 he had been serving for three weeks on board the 8,441 ton MV Domala, on what was his first voyage.

MV Domala set sail from London bound for Antwerp on the 17th of February 1940 under the command of Captain William Fitt on a mission to pick up one hundred and forty three British Indian seamen who were being repatriated by Germany. She was carrying forty six British Officers and a crew of one hundred and six Indian seamen from London, via Antwerp, to Calcutta. Having picked up the Indian seamen and carrying a cargo of 1,000 of spelter, 2,000 tons of iron and steel, 4,000 tons of sulphate of ammonia and 1,000 of general cargo, the MV Domala set sail from Antwerp at 3am on the 28th of February 1940.

At 5.45am on the 2nd of March 1940 she was in rough seas off St Catherine’s Point, Isle of Wight near the Owers light vessel when she was attacked by a Heinkel III of KG/26 which made four bombing attacks on the vessel dropping two sticks of four bombs of which three fell onto the ship causing terrible casualties amongst the passengers and crew. The first bomb entered though the engine room casings on the starboard side while the second penetrated the funnel on the port side, bursting near the aft accommodation cabin. The third hit a davit on the port side and burst in the saloon or wireless officer starting a fierce fire which resulted in the almost complete destruction of the vessel's upper works. The fourth missed falling some fifty yards astern. As the crew were manning the lifeboats in dense smoke the bomber returned, spraying the ship's decks with machine gun fire before setting course for home. The destroyer HMS Viscount ran her bow into the bow section of Domala which allowed some of the crew to make their escape by jumping onto the destroyer.
The Dutch Steamer “Jorge Willem” from the Netherlands picked up forty eight survivors from two lifeboats, and even as she performed this task, she too was bombed and fired upon by machine guns, fortunately without damage or casualties. She landed the survivors at Newhaven the following day, although due to heavy seas the Newhaven lifeboat was despatched to bring them ashore.

During the attack Captain Fitt was killed along with eighteen other British officers including Edward Oxspring, who was only three weeks into his first voyage as a Cadet, and eighty one Indians, of whom thirty six were crew.

Domala was in a very bad state, while still on fire, she was towed to the Solent where she was beached between Hurst Castle and the Needles on the 6th of March. She was refloated on the 15th of March and, on the 19th of March, she was towed to Southampton where the government purchased her and had her converted to a cargo vessel, becoming the “Empire Attendant”. On the 15th of July 1942, while on a voyage from the Mersey to Karachi and Durban, she was torpedoed by U582 with the loss of her entire crew of fifty nine.

He is commemorated on the Ashford Civic war memorial and on the memorials at Ashford Grammar School and Churcher’s College.

He was the first OKS to lose his life in the Second World War.
Marlowe House

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