“All I really knew about this period of his life was that he met and married my mother in Swansea, Wales, during the war, and that he had been a Marine Engineer on Merchant ships.” 

This was how Bryn Smith began his search for his father’s story. 

Spencer George Smith was born on 26 June 1915 in Reefton, on the West Coast of New Zealand. He was the son of Jessie Elizabeth Smith (née Ellis) (1882-1975) and William Dean Smith (1880-1968) of Reefton. Smith died on the 4th of May 1954, aged just 38 years 10 months, when Bryn was six and a half and his brother just two. Their mother, Jeanne Ruth Smith (née Jones), rarely spoke about Spencer and his war service. What remained were a few names of ships and albums filled with images that, as a child, Bryn did not yet understand. 

Decades later, he returned to those albums. “We had old photo albums with photos of ships, but I hadn’t asked questions about them.” 

That realisation began a long process of piecing together one man’s service across some of the most dangerous sea lanes of World War II. 

The breakthrough came with an unexpected find: a testimonial from the New Zealand Shipping Company listing every ship Spencer served on and the dates of each appointment. “A truly amazing document,” Bryn recalls, “which gave me the start to put together his war service.” 

Issued in London in January 1946, the testimonial traced Spencer’s career from his beginnings as a junior engineer aboard the Cornwall in 1937, through his wartime service on vessels including the Northumberland, Huntingdon, and Durham, to his final appointment as Acting 2nd Engineer in 1946 before returning to New Zealand. It recorded both his progression through engineering ranks and the interruption caused by the sinking of the Huntingdon in February 1941.¹

The document provided a framework for reconstructing his service, linking family memory with official records and confirming the sequence of ships, roles, and voyages that shaped his wartime experience. 

This biography is the story that emerged, written in collaboration with Bryn and Victoria Passau, Online Cenotaph and Enquiry Services Manager at Auckland War Memorial Museum. It follows Spencer’s service as a marine engineer, the ships he sailed on, the convoys he survived, and the legacy he left to a family who grew up knowing him more through memory than through presence. 

Beginnings at sea 

Spencer followed in the footsteps of his uncles, who had both served before him. George Ferris Smith (1878-1942) enlisted with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles during the South African War, while Captain Spencer Gannon Smith (1888-1960) MC, was a decorated officer in World War I. Their example of service and sacrifice formed part of the legacy into which Spencer stepped when he first went to sea in 1937. 

The Northumberland was part of the Atlantic convoy system, sailing under the HX convoy code from Halifax to Liverpool.⁴ These convoys were lifelines for Britain, but in the early years they were incredibly vulnerable. German U-boats perfected wolf-pack tactics, and the Allies had neither the air cover nor the escort ships to properly defend them.⁵ Between 1939 and 1941, merchant ships were sunk faster than they could be built. As a result, Britain came close to running out of food and fuel. It was within these dangerous conditions that Spencer’s own service took shape. 

Moments of peril 

The most dramatic moment of Spencer’s service came in February 1941, when he was serving as 4th Engineer on the SS Huntingdon. Sailing with Convoy OB288 from Liverpool into the North Atlantic, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by the Italian submarine Michele Bianchi. Two torpedoes struck, and the Huntingdon broke in two and went down.⁶ Spencer and the crew spent hours at sea before being rescued by the Greek freighter Papalemos and taken to the Azores, then repatriated via Lisbon to Britain.⁷ All 66 crew survived — a rare outcome when merchant ships were hit. A series of photographs taken by Spencer during and after the rescue show crew members gathered on deck, lifeboats at sea, and the officers of both vessels aboard the Papalemos. 

Spencer's personal photograph album

This sinking was not an isolated occurrence. Encounters like this were part of daily risk within the Atlantic convoys, where the Merchant Navy would ultimately suffer one of the highest casualty rates of any service, with more than a quarter of those who served killed.⁸

Soon after, Spencer was appointed to the MV Durham. In July 1941, the ship took part in Operation Substance, one of the earliest supply convoys to Malta.⁹ Because of Malta’s strategic importance, the convoy was escorted by battleships, an aircraft carrier, and nearly 20 destroyers.¹⁰ On the return, unescorted, Durham was damaged by mines and was later mined in Gibraltar harbour by an Italian midget submarine. She was deliberately run aground to prevent sinking, and Spencer stayed in Gibraltar to assist with lengthy repairs.¹¹

Wartime marriage in Wales

Bryn recalls that his mother spoke little about Spencer, beyond how they met while his ship was in port and that they married. Following the war, the couple returned to New Zealand, where they later had two children, including Bryn. 

Service continues 

Spencer continued at sea despite repeated dangers. In January 1943, he was assigned to the MV Papanui to oversee her engine installation on the Clyde and later served as 4th Engineer when she entered service. At this stage, convoy protection had significantly improved, with long-range aircraft and full-trip escort systems reducing U-boat success rates.¹⁴

From 1944 Spencer served on the MV Rangitiki, sailing multiple return convoys between Liverpool and New York.¹⁵ In 1945 he returned to the MV Durham, serving as Acting 2nd Engineer. It was during one of her voyages that Spencer received news of Germany’s surrender in May 1945, and later, of Japan’s surrender in August 1945. His last outward voyage to New Zealand included a call at Manila.  

He was promoted Acting 2nd Engineer of the Durham on 15 January 1946 for the passage from Avonmouth to London and resigned from the New Zealand Shipping Company’s service in order to return to New Zealand. In assessing his service, the New Zealand Shipping Company recorded that he was regarded for his conduct, sobriety, and ability, and recommended him as an experienced and capable engineer.¹⁶

For his wartime service, Spencer was awarded the 1939–45 Star, Atlantic Star, Africa Star, Pacific Star, War Medal 1939–45, and the New Zealand War Service Medal. 

After the war 

For Spencer, nine years at sea came to an end in 1946 when he came ashore, joining the Vacuum Oil Company, a forerunner of Mobil, as an engineer based at Wynyard Wharf, Auckland. 

A July 1946 report in the Herald of Wales described Jeanne as a “West Cross bride in New Zealand,” noting Spencer’s wartime service with the New Zealand Shipping Company, including participation in a convoy to Malta. By this time, the couple had settled in New Zealand, and Spencer was already living with chronic asthma that the family understood to be linked to his wartime service. Respiratory conditions were widely associated with the confined, poorly ventilated, and physically demanding conditions experienced by merchant seamen.¹⁷ 

Less than a decade after returning to New Zealand, he was gone. Transferred to Wellington and promoted to Chief Engineer, likely in 1953, he died there on 4 May 1954. He was cremated at Karori Crematorium on 6 May, and his ashes were later interred at Purewa Cemetery in Meadowbank, Auckland.¹⁸ 

His death left Jeanne to raise their young sons on her own, and the years that followed were not easy. Family recollections indicate that recognition of his illness and eligibility for support was not immediate. Bryn recalls that Jeanne later received a War Widow’s pension following a court case or wider action taken by a group of families in the years after the War Pensions Act 1954 (repealed by the Veterans’ Support Act 2014), likely in the late 1950s or early 1960s. While further detail is still being confirmed, her case reflects the challenges families faced in securing recognition of Merchant Navy service.¹⁹ 

It was only much later that Bryn began searching for answers, uncovering ship logs, convoy records, and photographs in family albums. Together, these records outline a life of sustained service during a period when the movement of supplies across the sea was essential. For Bryn, tracing his father’s wartime service has brought together fragments of memory and record, allowing his life at sea to be understood as part of his family’s wider history. 

References

¹ New Zealand Shipping Company. (1946, January 21). [Certificate of service for Spencer George Smith] [Company record].

² Archival records from the UK National Archives further confirm his early maritime service. His entry in the Central Register of Seamen (BT 372/113/98) records Spencer George Smith, born 26 June 1915 in Reefton, New Zealand, under discharge number R160529. UK National Archives. Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Central Register of Seamen, BT 372/113/98 (R160529 Smith S G).

³ STREAMLINED ENGINES. Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 56, 4 September 1939, Page 4; Railway Publicity Photo. Landing one of two new "J" class locomotives at Aotea Quay. Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 63, 12 September 1939, Page 7

⁴ ConvoyWeb, Arnold Hague database.

⁵ Dimbleby, Jonathan. The Battle of the Atlantic. London: Viking, 2015; Woodman, Richard. The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945. London: John Murray, 2004.

⁶ The National Archives. (n.d.). BT 389/16/40: Ship Huntingdon, gross tonnage 10946, 11849 (1939–1946).

⁷ Wrecksite. (n.d.). SS Huntingdon [+1941].

⁸ The Merchant Navy suffered one of the highest casualty rates of the war. Of the 185,000 allied seamen who served, 36,749 died, 3,720 were taken prisoner, and nearly 5,000 were wounded. That is a casualty rate of over 25 per cent. Research compiled by former Merchant Navy seaman and Auckland Museum volunteer John A. Ross demonstrates the scale of material losses, documenting over 3,000 British Merchant Navy ships sunk or damaged during the war. Other sources include Woodman, Richard (2004). The Real Cruel Sea: The Merchant Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic 1939–1945. London: John Murray; Roberts, S. E., Nielsen, D., Kotłowski, A., & Jaremin, B. (2014). Fatal accidents and injuries among merchant seafarers worldwide. Occupational Medicine, 64(4), 259–266.

⁹ Wikipedia contributors. (2026, January 29). Operation Substance. Wikipedia; Wikipedia contributors. (2026, January 29). Malta convoys. Wikipedia.

¹⁰ Hague, A. (1995). The supply of Malta 1940–1942, Part 1 of 3. Naval-History.net.

¹¹ London Gazette Admiralty Report, 38377 Supplement, 24 Oct 1941.

¹² Findmypast. (n.d.). Marriage record for Jeanne R. Jones and Spencer G. Smith, Swansea, Glamorganshire, 1942 (England & Wales Marriages 1837–2005).; Smith–Jones. (1942, December 28). South Wales Daily Post, p. 2. British Newspaper Archive; Davies, G. (2025, September 8). Clyne Chapel. The Story of Mumbles.

¹³ Bathing belle contest. (1942, August 4). South Wales Daily Post, p. 4. British Newspaper Archive.

¹⁴ M0tty. (2011, October 20). Monthly losses of Allied and neutral shipping by U-boat action [Chart]. Wikimedia Commons.

¹⁵ Convoys UC.24, CU.28 records: ConvoyWeb

¹⁶ New Zealand Shipping Company. (1946, January 21). [Certificate of service for Spencer George Smith] [Company record].

¹⁷ Carr, G. J. (1945). Health problems in the Merchant Navy. British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2(2), 65–73; Quinlan, M. (2013). Precarious and hazardous work: The health and safety of merchant seamen 1815–1935. Social History, 38(3), 281–307; Atkinson, N. (2001). A murderous occupation: Health and hazards. In Crew culture: New Zealand seafarers under sail and steam (pp. 48–71). Te Papa Press.

¹⁸ Wellington City Council. (n.d.). Spencer George Smith: Cremation record, Karori Crematorium, 6 May 1954. Discover Ever After. Find a Grave. (n.d.). Spencer George Smith (1916–1954).

¹⁹ This account is based on family memory; no surviving court documents have yet been located.