Beatrice Dunbar Thomson was born on 2 April 1922 in Nairobi, Kenya, the younger of the two children of James Thomson (1890-1935) and Beatrice Thomson, née Dunbar (1885-1959). Her brother was James Ian Thomson (1918-1971). Her parents were originally from Scotland and had emigrated in 1921 to Tanganyika (now Tanzania), East Africa, where they were farmers in the highlands of north Tanganyika.
She attended Arusha High School, Tanganyika.
She gained the rank of Serjeant in the Women's Territorial Service (East Africa), formally of the Women's Transport Service (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry), service number K/233.
On 6 February 1944 she was on board the S.S. Khedive Ismail, a liner that was being used a troopship. It formed part of Convoy KR-8 that sailed from Kilindini Harbour at Mombasa, Kenya to Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The convoy consisted of five troop transports (Khedive Ismail, City of Paris, Varsova, Ekma & Ellenga), escorted by the heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins and the destroyers HMS Petard and HMS Paladin.
In the early afternoon of Saturday 12 February 1944, a Japanese submarine sank the Khedive Ismail with two torpedoes. No fewer than 1,297 people, including 77 women, lost their lives in the two minutes it took for the Khedive Ismail to sink. Only 208 men and 6 women survived. The sinking was the third worst Allied shipping disaster of World War II and the single worst loss of female service personnel in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations. The https://www.royalmarineshistory.com/post/sinking-of-the-troopship-khedive-ismail website gives more details of the action.
She died, aged 21 years. As she has no known grave she is commemorated on Column 75 of the East Africa Memorial Kenya, in the Nairobi War Cemetery, Ngong Road, Nairobi, Kenya, and on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
