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Details:

Grave 693 Isolated Burial


An upright white marble inscribed grave (not a US Military of CWGC Gravestone).

 

Private Roy Muncaster served in D Company, 6th Battalion of the 20th Engineer Regiment, “Fighting Foresters”. 

 

Part of the 6th Battalion of the 20th Engineers was shipped to France aboard a former British transport ship, Tuscania. The Tuscania was torpedoed by a German U-Boat off the coast of the Isle of Islay. Over 200 US soldiers died in the incident, 95 of them from the 6th Battalion, 20th Engineers.

 

After the torpedo struck, Roy Muncaster, and his fellow "Forester", Sergeant Everett Harpham from Oregon, spent more than an hour assisting with the launching of lifeboat for other men. Eventually they slid down a rope into what they believed to be the last boat to leave the foundering liner. They pulled away as fast as they could for fear of being sucked under with the Tuscania. 

 

Harpham described the fight with the sea: ‘We tried to row away, but we had drifted so near that the breakers were taking us in faster than we would row in the overcrowded boat. Muncaster was handling the oars when the boat struck the rocks and was very cool and courageous all through the terrible experience. Just before we struck,  Roy slapped me on the back and said, “Cheer up Harp, we will get the Kaiser yet.” That was the last I heard him say. Later that day, Muncaster was found dead.

 

(Source:  WW100 Islay)

 

Muncaster is the only American casualty from the Great War whose body remains on the Scottish island of Islay. He was born in Rico, Colorado and at the time of enlistment worked as a forest ranger in Seattle, Washington State.

 

Muncaster Mountain in Quinault, Washington is named in his memory.

 

The American Monument or Tuscania/Otranto Memorial is 5 kilometers to the southwest.  See this website site, Oa Clliffs, Islay for more on the Tuscania sinking.

 

 

About the CWGC Kilnaughton Military Cemetery: The cemetery was created in 1918 to bury the dead of the S.S. Tuscania;  4 Commonwealth crewmen from that vessel and 1 American soldier are now buried here.   84 American graves, mainly of the 20th Engineers, who were passengers on the S.S. Tuscania, were later removed. There is 1 unidentified burial, lost in the S.S. Tuscania, and 5 Commonwealth burials of the 1939-1945 war are located in this cemetery.



Monument Text:

Banner of the United States

 

PRIVATE

 

ROY MUNCASTER

 

D COY

 

6TH BATT. 20TH ENGINEERS

 

US ARMY

Commemorates:

People:

Roy Muncaster

Units:

20th Engineer Regiment

Tuscania

Wars:

WWI

Other images :