HMT Ausonia

History
Name	HMT Ausonia
Builder/Built	1909 Swan, Hunter & Wighan Richardson
Type	Passenger ship
Displacement	7,907 tons
Speed	12 knots

Remarks

Originally named Tortona, she was owned by the Thompson Line and used on the Canadian route with accommodation for 37 first class and 1,000 third class passengers. Sold in 1911 to the Cunard Steam Ship Line for £120,001 and renamed Ausonia. Cunard used her on their Trans Atlantic route to Canada until WW1.

Used during WW1 as a troopship, primarily in the Mediterranean until she was torpedoed and sunk by gunfire by U55 west of Fastnet on 30 May 1918, with the loss of 44 lives. She had one previous scrape with a U Boat, on 11 Jun 1917 when she was torpedoed off southern Ireland, but was able to reach port.

Note

Individual soldiers records show the name of the ship as ANSONIA. However, there is no record of a ship by that name, and the AUSONIA was in the Mediterranean acting as a troop ship at the time. All records that mention SS or HMT Ansonia are therefore listed against the HMT Ausonia.

Soldiers carried

Mudros to Alexandria 6 - 10 Jan 1916

• † William Barge
• † Charles Barnett
• Frederick James Bishop
• Edward Briggs
• Arthur Percy Thomas Boyle
• Oswald Chorlton
• Charles Glyn Firns
• Walter Hayward
• John Hobbs
• Henry Richard Keefe
• Harry Pickard
• Henry George Price
• Reginald Grove Sexty MID post WW1 man
• Arnold Thorp
• Hubert Harris Thorp

Alexandria to Marseilles 28 April - 5 May 1916

3rd Mining Company

• William George Munday
• William Harrington Edward Watson