Enrique Manuel Aguirre was born on 25 May 1903 in Anerley, Kent (now Greater London), the youngest of the three children of Enrique Blas Aguirre (1866-1926) and Henrietta Emma Aguirre née Rogers (1861-1935). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1903 in the Croydon registration district, Surrey (now Greater London). His two siblings were: Carmen Isobel Henrietta Aguirre (1899-1941) and Evelyn Kate Aguirre (b.1901).
His father, who was a merchant, had been a subject of Spain and was granted naturalisation as a British subject on 9 May 1902. His mother had been a widow when she married his father in 1891. She had two children with her previous husband, Michele Angelo Roasio (1836-1889), namely Frank Richard Roasio (b.1882) and Veronica Celestina Roasio (1883-1968).
In the 1911 census he is shown as living in an eleven roomed house at 152 Croydon Road, Anerley, London, SE, with his mother and his step-sister Veronica Celestina Roasio, together with two female domestic servants.
Electoral registers from 1928 to 1935 show his business premises at 24/25 Great Tower Street, London, EC3 and from 1936 to 1939 at 29 Martin Lane, London, EC4.
In July 1936 he is listed on the passenger manifest of the S.S. Rawalpindi of the P & O Steam Navigation Company as a merchant of 152 Croydon Road, SE20, travelling 1st class from Gibraltar to London.
He was described as an agriculture importer (Spanish) in the 1939 England and Wales Register still residing at 152 Croydon Road, Anerley, with both his sisters who were shown as of private means.
He died, aged 38 years old, when travelling from Lisbon, Spain to Liverpool, Lancashire, aboard the S.S. Avoceta owned by Yeoward Line Ltd that was part of convoy HG-73, when it was hit at 00.31 hours on 26 September 1941 by one of four torpedoes fired by the German submarine U-203 north of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was hit on the port side close to the engine room and sank quickly. 43 crew members, four gunners and 76 passengers were lost, including his sister, Carmen Isobel Henrietta Aguirre. More details of the sinking can be found on the uboat.net website and the ship's Wikipedia page.
Probate records incorrectly show his date of death at sea as 25 September 1941. Probate was granted to his sister Evelyn Kate Aguirre on 12 January 1942 and his effects totalled £2,169-3s-5d.
He is shown as E. M. Aguirre on the Penge war memorial. He is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and in Volume VII of the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour 1939-1945 kept just outside the entrance to St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey that both show his date of death as 25 September 1941.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
