After leaving Wrekin, Richard attended Birmingham University, where he pursued a degree in electrical engineering. His enrolment in full-time education temporarily exempted him from military service. Despite this exemption, Richard volunteered to serve in the Royal Air Force in the autumn of 1940.

Training and Deployment

Richard successfully completed his qualifying training in England and was then expected to finish his course and receive his commission in Rhodesia. To reach his next stage of training, Richard boarded the troopship SS Anselm¹ as a passenger, bound for South Africa. The vessel was transporting 1,210 RAF and military personnel.

The Attack on the SS Anselm

On the morning of 5^th July 1941, the German submarine U-96, acting on a convoy contact report provided by a Condor aircraft, tracked a group of ships through fog approximately 300 miles north of the Azores. The formation consisted of six vessels: the British survey ship HMS Challenger leading the troopship Anselm, the armed merchant cruiser HMS Cathay, and three corvettes—HMS Petunia, HMS Lavender, and HMS Starwort—which were positioned to port, starboard, and astern of the Anselm.

At 08:29 hours, U-96 launched a salvo of four torpedoes, mistakenly believing it had struck HMS Cathay and HMS Challenger. In reality, two torpedoes hit the Anselm, causing it to sink within 22 minutes. The crew managed to launch all but one of the lifeboats during this brief window. However, the sinking resulted in the loss of four crew members and 250 of the service personnel on board.

Rescue and Aftermath

The three corvettes immediately launched a counter-attack against the U-boat. HMS Starwort’s sonar system was not operational, so the task of attacking fell to HMS Petunia and HMS Lavender, both of which established firm sonar contacts. HMS Petunia released six depth charges, while HMS Lavender deployed twenty. As the corvettes moved closer to the survivors in the water, they were forced to halt the depth charge assault. Despite this, the attack inflicted severe damage on U-96², compelling it to abandon its patrol.

Meanwhile, the master, 93 crew members, three gunners, and 965 service personnel—including 60 men rescued directly from the water—were picked up by the survey ship and the third corvette. The survivors were subsequently transferred to HMS Cathay and eventually brought ashore at Freetown.

Sadly, Richard was not one of the survivors and so is commemorated on the Runnymede memorial. He was 19 years old.

1. Built in December 1935. In 1940 the passenger ship was requisitioned by the Admiralty and used as troop transport. 
    
2. U-96 was finally sunk by the USAAF in March 1945 in air raid at Wilhelmshaven.

Son of Cecil Rothwell & Margery Helen Rothwell of Tamworth, Staffordshire.

A downloadable copy of this story is available here.

Revised: November 2025