Harrogate Herald - 21st November 1917

W H Breare letter

I will give you now the detailed facts. Chief Officer F E Toogood, of the transport service (the officer in question), has had an exciting time within the last two months, two ships to which he was attached having been torpedoed and sunk in that period. Fortunately all on board on both occasions were saved. The first incident occurred in September, and the crew were able to take to the boats and later picked up by patrol boats. All their belongings were lost, and Chief Officer Toogood was sent home on a month's leave by the Admiralty, so that his insurance could be arranged and be allotted another ship. This second ship was torpedoed last Tuesday in the early morning, and sank within five minutes, but after about twenty minutes in the boats the sailors were saved by the patrol boats. Everything was lost again, and this necessitated a second visit home for re-equipment and allotment. Chief Officer Toogood, who is a member of the Imperial Merchant Service Guild, is the son of Mr G R Toogood, of Normanza House, King's Road, Harrogate. It is this officer who has again been hunted up as would be a man evading service in the Army. Do you wonder he found ordinary adjectives inadequate to denounce the busybodies who set the police in motion?