{"id":4595,"date":"2025-08-31T13:13:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T13:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=4595"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:06:11","slug":"sir-john-whittingdale-attends-merchant-navy-day-commemoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=4595","title":{"rendered":"Merchant Navy Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"4595\" class=\"elementor elementor-4595\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-33bcb5af e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"33bcb5af\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-29976841 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"29976841\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p>Sir John Whittingdale, MP for Maldon, was pleased to attend the commemoration of Merchant Navy Day which took place on the Hythe Quay on 31<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0August. The ceremony was well- attended with prayers being led by Father Andrew Appiah of St Mary\u2019s Church, together with musical accompaniment from the St Mary\u2019s Church Choir, Legacy Brass, Piper Jo Goddard and the Salt, Water &amp; Beer Shanty Singers.<\/p>\n\n<p>In particular, five merchant seamen from Maldon who lost their lives in the Second World War were remembered: Henry Akehurst, David Buck (aged 17 \u2013 SS San Gerardo), Frederick Simmons (SS Lulworth Hill), Geoffrey Taber (SS Fort Mumford) and Bernard Mussett.<\/p>\n\n<p>Pictured are: Father Andrew Appiah, Deputy Mayor Cllr James Burrell-Cook, Mayor John Driver and Mrs Driver and members of St Mary\u2019s Church choir.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"wp-image-4596\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Merchant-Navy-Day-31-August-2025-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attendance at Merchant Navy Day commemorations in Maldon honouring local seafarers who lost their lives in the Second World War and recognising the community\u2019s continued remembrance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4595"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5319,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4595\/revisions\/5319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}