Carmen Isobel Henrietta Aguirre was born in 1899 in Anerley, Kent (now Greater London), the eldest of the three children of Enrique Blas Aguirre (1866-1926) and Henrietta Emma Aguirre née Rogers (1861-1935). Her birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1899 in the Croydon registration district, Surrey (now Greater London). Her two siblings were: Evelyn Kate Aguirre (b.1901) and Enrigue Manuel Aguirre (1903-1941).
Her father, who was a merchant, had been a subject of Spain and was granted naturalisation as a British subject on 9 May 1902. Her mother had been a widow when she married her 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 1901 census she is shown as aged one year, living at 120 Croydon Road, Penge, Kent (now Greater London), with her mother, her step-sister Veronica Celestina Roasio, who was listed as an art student and her sister Evelyn Kate Aguirre, together with a domestic nurse and a female general domestic servant.
Both she and her sister are shown on the 1911 census as residing and attending the secondary school at The Convent of the Faithful Virgin & Roman Catholic School, Central Hall, Upper Norwood, Croydon, Surrey (now Greater London).
She and her sister were listed as of private means in the 1939 England and Wales Register and residing at 152 Croydon Road, Anerley, together with their brother who was described as an agriculture importer (Spanish). Her date of birth was incorrectly recorded as 31 July 1902.
She died, aged 42 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 her brother Enrigue Manuel Aguirre. More details of the sinking can be found on the uboat.net website and the ship's Wikipedia page.
Probate records incorrectly show her date of death at sea as 25 September 1941. Probate was granted to her sister Evelyn Kate Aguirre on 19 January 1942 and her effects totalled £1,648-18s-4d.
She is shown as C. I. H. Aguirre on the Penge war memorial. She 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 her date of death as 25 September 1941.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
