Lord, Radio Officer Ian McLean Lord

Service highlights

  • Rank: Radio Officer
  • Born: 21 February 1923
  • Family: Son of Arthur and Katherine Lord
  • St. Marys connection: Came to St. Marys with his parents around 1924 when his father was appointed local branch manager of the Bank of Toronto
  • Schooling: Attended St. Marys Central School and St. Marys Collegiate Institute until 1938
  • Radio training: Studied at the Radio College of Canada in Toronto, graduating in November 1941 as a qualified ship’s radio officer
  • Wartime work at sea: Joined Marconi International Marine and served on merchant ships
  • Last ship: SS Ramapo, a freighter owned by Waterman Steamship Company and registered in Panama
  • Lost at sea: 16 February 1942, after Ramapo was torpedoed and sunk by German U-108 after departing Bermuda
  • No known grave: Commemorated on the Halifax Memorial
  • Commemorated locally: Named on the St. Marys Cenotaph bronze plaque and on the World War II plaque at St. Marys Town Hall
  • Also commemorated: Canadian Merchant Navy Book of Remembrance and the Petrolia war memorial

A Life and Service Remembered

Ian McLean Lord was born on 21 February 1923 and came to the St. Marys area as a toddler, when his father took on the management of the local Bank of Toronto branch. He grew up here, attending St. Marys Central School and then the Collegiate Institute. When the family moved to Petrolia in 1938, classmates later remembered Ian as a fine, earnest, and most likeable young man, the sort of person who fit easily among friends.

After high school, he chose a path that blended skill and responsibility. He went to Toronto to train in radio and graduated in November 1941 as a qualified ship’s radio officer. He joined Marconi International Marine soon afterward and quickly found himself doing the work that kept merchant ships connected and coordinated at sea. His first appointment was likely as a second radio officer on a British freighter that sailed from Montreal and reached Britain just before Christmas 1941.

By late December 1941 or early 1942, Ian was appointed radio officer on the SS Ramapo. The ship had an unusual recent history. It had once been an Italian steamer, Santarosa, then was seized in July 1941 and later placed under new ownership and registry. In the early weeks of 1942, Ramapo sailed with cargo for warmer waters, then loaded again and headed north to Bermuda, bound ultimately for Philadelphia. While in Bermuda, Ian had the chance to write a letter to his parents, a small moment of normal life in the middle of wartime uncertainty.

On 16 February 1942, shortly after leaving Bermuda, Ramapo was hit by a torpedo and sank. The submarine surfaced after the attack and questioned crew members in their lifeboats, but no trace of those survivors was ever found. Ian was only 18.

He was survived by his parents, Arthur and Katherine, in Petrolia. In St. Marys, the loss was felt strongly enough that the St. Marys Rotary Club and a representative group of local businessmen sent a formal letter of condolence. His father later returned to St. Marys and was involved in the early administration of St. Marys Memorial Hospital.

Major battles and operations

  • Battle of the Atlantic, merchant service (1941 to 1942): Radio communications duty on ocean going freighters moving through active submarine threat areas
  • Transatlantic voyage (late 1941): Service on a British freighter sailing from Montreal to Britain
  • Final voyage of SS Ramapo (early 1942): Cargo voyages through Atlantic routes that included Bermuda and the run north toward Philadelphia
  • Sinking of SS Ramapo (16 February 1942): Torpedoed and sunk by German U-108 after leaving Bermuda, crew lost and Ian presumed killed

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