WILSON Richard Booth
died 8 Jan 1916 age 18
Service No. 398 TC
RNR Able Seaman/trimmer/cook
HM Drifter ‘Morning Star’
Wards Cottage

Richard Booth Wilson was born on 30th April 1897, the illegitimate son of William Wilson a general labourer and Helen Stevenson a domestic servant. He was born at 27 Shore Street Macduff, and his father William Wilson lived at 18 Market Street Macduff. We know that William Wilson acknowledged Richard as his own son, as William and Helen both signed the birth record.
Helen and William did marry eighteen months later on 12th October 1898 in Macduff, Helen was aged just 18 and William was aged 22. By 1901 the family were living at 5 Paterson Street, and had added to their family with the birth of a daughter Margaret Ann Jamison Wilson in April 1899.
By 1911 the family had grown again and William and Helen now had eight children, Richard Booth, Margaret Ann Jamieson, Frank J, Bathia, Helen, Williamina, Barbara and Annie C, and they were living at 18 Gellymill Street Macduff.
In 1911, Richard was employed as a message boy for a local butcher, but by 1914 he was already working at sea. He was assigned to the HM Drifter ‘Morning Star’ and on the 8th January 1916, the ‘Morning Star’ while coming to the rescue of the troopship ‘Citta Di Palermo’ was sunk by a mine from the German submarine UC-14, off Brindisi. He was aged just 18
At the two year anniversary of his death his parents, William and Helen placed a memorial notice in the Aberdeen Evening express.