Edward William's Story.
Edward William Phibbs was born in Manchester in 1882, the son of Robert Foden Phibbs and his wife Hannah. He worked as a clerk for Williams Deacon's Bank (now part of Royal Bank of Scotland.)
On 19th March 1917 he left his job at the bank's Manchester St Ann Street branch and joined the Army Service Corps (number M/301284). On 3rd May 1917 he was on board SS Transylvania which sailed from Marseille to Alexandria with a full complement of troops escorted by the Japanese destroyers Matsu and Sakaki. They were on the way to Egypt to relieve the troops there. At 10 am on the 4th May she was struck in the port engine room by a torpedo fired by the German U-boat U-63. The ship was about 2.5 miles south of Cape Vado near Savona in the Gulf of Genoa. 20 minutes later a second torpedo hit the ship which sank immediately. 10 crew members, 29 army officers and 373 soldiers lost their lives. Edward was one of those. Many of the bodies were recovered at Savona and buried 2 days later in a special plot in the town cemetery. Sadly Edward's body was not recovered but is remembered on the Savona Memorial.
His brother Robert was in the Tank Corps. and killed on 8th August 1918.
Researched by Mike Akerman with employment information from https://www.rbsremembers.com/remembers/our-fallen/p/edward-phibbs.html
His Service Record has survived