Dear Debbie,

I have lots of information for you. A Google search for "forgotten convoy" turns up numerous hits, some of which mention SS BEACONHILL in greater or lesser detail. See the following links:

http://www.aukevisser.nl/inter/id825.htm (This one is about BEACONHILL specifically)

http://www.usmm.org/wsa/forgottenconvoy.html

http://www.history.org.uk/resources/he_news_1471.html

http://ww2today.com/25th-february-1943-arctic-convoy-jw-53-battered-in-gale

http://members.boardhost.com/armedguard/thread/1330984445.html

https://books.google.com/books?id=TgFx3m0ySd8C&pg=PA210&lpg=PA210&dq=%22forgotten+Convoy%22&source=bl&ots=frTfT86r1O&sig=eBhUdgkf82lu01Gg6j6xIHFsqA4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=g05sVbbDHMKZgwSa54D4CA&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22forgotten%20Convoy%22&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=Sp_UBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=%22forgotten+Convoy%22&source=bl&ots=l7IlxUhJZQ&sig=j-aY8Hl7lI-0cK3VqmaDZIu9wYQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uExsVb-9PIWlgwTK_YFw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwBjgK#v=onepage&q=%22forgotten%20Convoy%22&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=IlMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=%22forgotten+Convoy%22&source=bl&ots=jOa4Hg9j1i&sig=9mF3GnJ2v714F-IX8JhGPiGehh8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uExsVb-9PIWlgwTK_YFw&ved=0CCwQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=%22forgotten%20Convoy%22&f=false

Below is a list of the Armed Guard crew aboard BEACONHILL during the Forgotten Convoy, including your father. I have no idea whether any of these men are still living, nor would I have contact information for any that are.

Bailey, Paul Oliver
Brackett, Thomas Earl
Buss, Paul Raymond
Clark, John Edward
Clark, Orville Eugene
Darland, William Howard
Flick, Elvin Garner
Goguen, Joseph Albert
Glass, Albert
Goodman, Solomon
Holys, Frank John (or Holyn)
Huff, Alvin Eldren
Humphrey, Richard Howard
Hutton, Howard Freeland
Ingle, James Albert
Johnson Jr., Everette T
Johnson, Leslie Peter
Jones, Earlin Lester
Lashway, Harold Gilbert
Morand, Peter Anthony
Melanson, Edward Bernard
Miller, Vernon Paul
Mumblow, George Andy
Merritt, Julian Thomas
Piscatella, Anthony M
Spaise, Angel
Spaise, John
Towns, Lunas Webster
Twyford, William Henry
Young, Gilbert S Ensign, Armed Guard Commanding Officer

The above information comes from a search of the subscription website Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com) for your father's name and found this record for his "Forgotten Convoy" voyage aboard BEACONHILL. (This website is more commonly used for genealogical research but I have found that it contains lists of crew members and passengers of merchant ships that arrived in certain U.S. ports of entry following a foreign voyage. Information for the port of New York is especially extensive. I have been successful in finding many merchant seamen and Armed Guard officers and sailors in this manner.)

The same search produced results for your father serving aboard other ships and/or other voyages. Below is a list of the ships and voyages including date of arrival in New York and the last foreign port before its return to New York:

SS BEACONHILL arrived New York 10/12/42 from Glasgow, Scotland
SS BEACONHILL arrived New York 12/09/42 from Liverpool, England
SS BEACONHILL arrived New York 12/04/43 from Archangel, Russia (the Forgotten Convoy)

SS TUSTAM arrived New York 02/01/44 from Aruba
SS TUSTAM arrived New York 02/22/44 from Aruba
SS TUSTAM arrived New York 03/17/44 from Curacao
SS TUSTAM arrived New York 04/15/44 from Curacao
SS TUSTAM arrived New York 06/05/44 from Aruba

SS SAN ANTONIO arrived New York 12/07/44 from Avonmouth, England

The above list may not be comprehensive; note that the last voyage I found for him was still well before the end of the war. For a complete list of all of the ships in which your father served, you may wish to try to obtain your father's military service records, which should provide that, along with possibly a great deal of other information. See this page within the Armed Guard website, http://armed-guard.com/searchmil.html, in particular section II.A.1 - Records of Individuals, Military, for instructions on requesting a copy of his records. You will have to contact the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO, and provide as much identifying information as you have (name, date and place of birth, date and place of death, Social Security Number, military ID number ["serial number"], etc.). The page has links to all of the information you will need to request his records, including a required form. There will likely be a charge for researching, photocopying and mailing the records but the Records Center staff will alert you to the cost before beginning work. Once you have his records and if you have any more questions, come back and ask them.

Of particular use to you in contacting the National Personnel Records Center, I noticed that one of the records I found for him at Ancestry.com included his serial number, or military identification number. His serial number was 656-21-69. Quoting that number when contacting the Records Center may be the single most useful bit of information you can provide, aside from his name.

Good luck.

Ron Carlson, Webmaster
Armed Guard / Merchant Marine website
www.armed-guard.com