HMHS Grantully Castle

HMHS Grantully Castle

Hospital train in foreground transferring patients to Grantully Castle
History
Name	HMHS Grantully Castle
Owner	Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company of London
Builder	Barclay Curle & Company, Glasgow
Yard number	477
Launched	14 Oct 909
Completed	15 Dec 1909
In service	1910
Out of service	20 Jul 1939
Fate	scrapped 1939
General characteristics
Type	Passenger / Cargo
Tonnage	7,606 tons
Length	450 ft 7 in (137.34m)
Beam	54 ft 4 in (16.55m)
Depth	30ft 7 in (9.33m)
Propulsion	twin screw
Speed	13 knots (24.08 km/h)

Remarks

In January 1915 she was being used as a troopship supporting the atttempt by the British and French Navies to force a passage through the Dardenelles. She waited at Mudros in company with the Alnwick Castle and Balmoral Castle for five weeks from 18 March until 23 April 1915 while attempts were made to force the Dardenelles. With the failure of the naval action, they were part of the British landings on the Gallipoli Peninsular in late April 1915. By the time they eventually landed, it was to meet opposition from a re-inforced Turkish army.

She left the Dardanelles on 1st May 1915 for Malta where she was commissioned as a hospital ship with 560 beds in the form of 18 Officers, 184 Cots, 358 Berths. She operated as such from 22 Jun 1915 until 11 Mar 1919, and during 11917 & 1918 she performed a regular servicw carrying injured and sick troops from French ports to English ports, carrying a medical staff of 10 Officers, 15 Nurses and 59 Orderlies/others

On 11 Mar 1919 it was returned to the Union-Castle Line and served them until she was scrapped in 1939 having had brief periods of being laid up in 1930, 1933 and 1936.

Soldiers carried

France to England 24 January 1917

• Richard Beattie

Le Havre to England 11 February 1917

• William Edward McKenna

Le Havre to England 24 Feb 1917

• Bernard O'Reilly Post WW1

Le Havre to England 25 Apr 1917

• Edward Hobson

France to England 27 April 1917

• William Thomas Saw

France to England 20 May 1917

• Robert George McLean Post WW1 men

Le Havre to England 14 June 1917

• Charles Fielder
• Roy Walden King

France to England 24 October 1917

• Albert William Barratt

France to England 15 November 1917

• Henry Albert Thorp

France to England 23 December 1917

• Thomas Allan O'Dea

France to England 10 June 1918

• Frank Myales

France to England 21 June 1918

• Arthur James Allen

France to England 6 July 1918

• Robert Frank Bickford

Rouen to England 10 July 1918

• John Arthur Patterson MM

France to England 16 July 1918

• Alfred Gittins

France to England 24 August 1918

• Gordon Devereux MM

France to England 8 November 1918

• Aubrey Turner