Able Seaman Joseph Scouarnec was a Free French member of the Merchant Navy during the Second World War. Born on 9th March 1915, he was the son of Louis Scouarnec and Marie Scouarnec of Treboul, Douarnenez, Brittany, France. His wife Ellen Scouarnec was from Belfast.
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Joseph had been a sailor and escaping after the fall of France, he joined many other Free French in the war against Nazi Germany. His name features as a Free French combatant in the lists of Admiral Chaline and Henri Ecochard.
Joseph saw much of the world during the Second World War. On 7th November 1942, he arrived in Liverpool, England from Bombay, India. Along the way, the Peninsula and Orient Steam Navigation Company ship Nieuw Holland called at Cape Town, Durban, and Mombasa.
Scouarnec died on 31st October 1945 aged 30 years old. At the time, he was serving on S.S. Albert Faroult in Belfast. His place of death was Whiteabbey Sanatorium. This was a convalescence hospital for patients with Tuberculosis. It later became Whiteabbey Hospital, on Doagh Road, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim.
Joseph Scouarnec’s grave is in Section B4, Grave 729 of Dundonald Cemetery, Dundonald, Co. Down. His headstone bears the inscription:
O mort, ou est ta victoire? O mort, ou est ton aiguillon? 1 Cor. XV.55.