This article was first published in the West Sussex Gazette on February 15th 2001

In a recent letter, Mr. Michael Burt of Storrington writes about the Burt family who have long associations with Worthing, particularly his great grandfather James Burt who practised as a chemist and who had businesses in Egremont Place and later in Montague Street.

Born in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire in 1841, James Burt moved to Worthing about 1862. It didn't take him very long to find a girl friend, one Jane Stubbs, and they were married on the 26th October 1863 at Broadwater Church. In the following eighteen years they were blessed with eleven children.

James Burt could well be described as a local worthy, a man obviously having a social conscience who among his many interests was involved with the local Board of Health, the Worthing Men's Institute and Reading Room where he gave talks, the Band of Hope and the medical branch of the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society. He was a trustee of the Chapel of Ease, now St Paul's Church, and a member of the Worthing Volunteer Force, St. John's Ambulance Association, the Primrose League that fostered the ideals of truth, justice, honesty and religion, and of patriotism.

He was keenly interested in things nautical, being a founder member of the Worthing Britannia Rowing Club (1881) and a supporter of the Shipwrecked Fishermen & Mariners Royal Benevolent Society, in which capacity he was instrumental in opening the subscription list to purchase a fishing boat to replace a local boat which was wrecked off Worthing in 1881. The Benn and Dunford (the two local fishermen who had lost their boat) Appeal Fund raised nearly £100 under his able treasureship with which he was able to negotiate the purchase of a boat to replace that lost. Such was the public spirit and compassion of men like James Burt in Victorian times - James' obituary mentions that he was a 'staunch and true friend to the local watermen and fishermen'.

James retired from business in 1896 due to declining health, the business continuing under a Mr. W.Tollitt. Unfortunately, James was not permitted to enjoy a long and active retirement, the strains to which he had subjected himself both in business and in his public works had begun to take their toll but from all accounts he remained cheerful and bright almost to the end of his life. He died on the 15th February 1899 at the age of fifty-seven. Choosing to be laid to rest in the sylvan setting of Brookwood Cemetery near Woking and to be interred in a paper-maché coffin, James was thus effectually carrying out to principle of 'earth to earth'.

James and Jane's first born, Bernard Charles (b.1864) obviously inherited his father's love of the sea and things maritime. As a lad of fifteen he made a trip on a vessel called 'Gensing' from Shoreham to the Tyne and back to Shoreham, which must have whetted his ambition to make the sea his career for just three months later in September 1879 he signed indentures as an apprentice with the well known London shipping company Geo. Duncan and Co. On completing his four year apprenticeship and having gained his Second Mates Certificate he joined another London shipping company, J. Fenwick & Sons, who were largely engaged in the Tyne coal trade serving in three of this company's ships as Second and First Officer by which time he had gained his Masters Certificate as well.

In June 1889 at the age of twenty-five, Bernard took a wife, one Mary Jane Stubbs, being married at St. Peter's Church Brighton. In 1893 he joined the Union Line (which seven years later was to merge with the Castle Line to become the Union-Castle Line, famous for its first class passenger services to South Africa).

Bernard went on to enjoy a distinguished career with the Union-Castle, was commissioned in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1896 and served as the Master of several of this famous line's ships before being promoted to Lt. Cmd. R.N.R. in 1908. The Great War saw him in command of Union-Castle ships which had been taken up for service as troop transports or hospital ships and he was involved in the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign and the bombardment of Gallipoli, being mentioned in Despatches for his services at that time.

In late 1917 Bernard became the Master of the Hospital ship 'Glenart Castle', which in February 1918 was torpedoed by a U-Boat in the Bristol Channel; fortunately there were no patients on board at the time for she sank in seven minutes, but of the 200 souls on board there were only thirty-eight survivors. Faithful to the traditions of the Merchant Service, Captain Burt went down with his ship leaving his wife Mary Jane Burt and a son, Bernard, to mourn his passing.