9137: Norman Macritchie

Tormod Neill Thormoid

Norman Macritchie (born 1905) was a son of Neil Macritchie and Bess Mackenzie, 38 Gravir. The family moved to 8 Orinsay in 1921.

On 3 December 1925, he enrolled in the Royal Naval Reserve, Service Number AX13006 and re-enrolled under BX8158 and CX7258. His records indicate that he was 5ft 6½ in tall, with brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion. 

He joined the Merchant Navy and travelled  to Alexandria, the West Indies, the west coast of South America and New York.  From March to December 1929 he was unemployed and in February 1930 he travelled to Italy, Buenos Airies, the Far East, the Black Sea,  the Mediterranean, the River Plate, Leningrad on the SS Atlantic and to Australia on the SS Port Bowen. Initially based at 18 London Road, Edinburgh and by 1930 he was living at 6 Burton Villas, Hull.

In 1937 he was working in Hull as a Steel Erector and a Stevedore and in 1939 he was in the County Hospital, known as the Stornoway Sanitorium for almost a year with Tuberculosis. He was declared  Physically Unfit for Naval Service.

Norman married a girl called Ivy and they lived at 54 Field Street, Hull.