Chief Engineer Officer Bernhard Stanley Codd was born at Ipswich in 1913, the son of William Ernest and Wilhelmine Bernhardine Codd, and is remembered on the Tower Hill Merchant Navy Memorial in London and in Hooe Churchyard, Sussex, on the headstone of his wife, Doris Edith Codd born 16th December 1913, died 10th April 2000.

Bernhard was added to the war memorial post war at the request of Edith as he was not on that of Bexhill.

Bernhard died on the 5th April 1943 MV Shillong when it was sunk by U-635 in the North Atlantic off of Cape farewell whilst en route for the UK.

The ship had loaded cargo at Port Lincoln and New York and was laden with 8000 tons of zinc concentrate and 3000 tons of grain and was bound for Belfast, Lough and Swansea. Having left the USA, the ship sailed to Nova Scotia to join convoy HX-231, comprising of sixty one merchant ships and escorted by six warships. The Shillong had a crew of 78 men.

On Sunday the 4th of April, the convoy was attacked by a pack of U-boats and Shillong was struck by a torpedo from U-635, but was not sunk. However, just after midnight on the 5th, the U-boat attacked again and this time torpedoed and sank the Shillong.

Thirty eight men succeeded in escaping into lifeboats. Eight days later, a Catalina flying boat of the Royal Air Force spotted the drifting lifeboat and signalled the Dutch merchant ship "Zamalek" to pick up the survivors. Of the men who had clambered into the lifeboat, only seven were found alive - the rest, including the ship's Captain, J.H. Hollow, had died of exposure.

Liberator "N" of 120 Squadron, based at Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, later sank U-635 with depth charges. None of the forty seven crew survived.

[The Shillong The 5,529 ton, Motor Vessel Shillong had been built by Stephens and Co at Glasgow in 1939 for the Peninsular & Orient Line.]