Arthur Wigham

From Owen Keen

Arthur was the antithesis to Charlie Lorains! Whilst Charlie was the tramp ship man in the wrong shoes, Arthur was a passenger ship man from a tramp ship family. His father and brothers were all Bank Line, they couldn't understand Arthur's defection for a life of sanded decks and white tropical shoes!

I sailed with Arthur when he was 3rd mate on the "Winchester Castle", a more pleasant fellow officer it would be hard to meet. When he joined the Company with a master's ticket he had accepted that he would remain in the rank of 3rd of a mail ship until those with lesser certificates but senior in service caught up with him, meaning he would be a 3rd mate for many years. As things turned out because of the high rate of resignations in the 60's Arthur managed to reach the rank of Staff Commander before the inevitable happened.

John White, John (Tiny) Taylor, Mike Hooper

???, Peter Williams, Arthur Wigham

'Athlone Castle' 1958

Review - February 1960

Service Record	From	To
Athlone Castle 3rd Officer	1958
Winchester Castle 3rd Officer	3/1959
Pretoria Castle 3rd Officer	11/1959
Pendennis Castle 3rd Officer	12/1959
Warwick Castle 3rd Officer	9/1960
Windsor Castle Jnr 2nd Officer	5/1961
Edinburgh Castle Jnr 2nd Officer	9/1962
Edinburgh Castle 2nd Officer	10/1963
Braemar Castle 2nd Officer	4/1964
Pretoria Castle 2nd Officer	7/1965
Edinburgh Castle Chief Officer	2/1967
SA Vaal Chief Officer	1967
Rustenburg Castle Chief Officer	12/1967
King James Chief Officer	6/1971
Clan Menzies Chief Officer	3/1972
Windsor Castle Staff Commander	6/1973
SA Vaal Staff Commander	8/1973
SA Oranje Staff Commander	11/1973
Pendennis Castle Staff Commander	1/1975
Windsor Castle Staff Commander	1/1977
Bonnieway Chief Officer	2/1978

Email Received 21 December 2017

We have just heard from his son that Arthur Wigham passed away on 16th December.

He died peacefully from pneumonia, after a long period of progressive heart failure, with my mum Betty, my sister Deborah and myself by his side.

WIGHAM ARTHUR

Peacefully on 16th December aged 86 years, Captain Arthur F Wigham. Formerly of Union-Castle and Stephenson Clarke Shipping.

Dearly loved husband of Betty, father of Deborah and John, father-in-law of Alan and grandfather of Jonathan, David and Sarah.

He will be sadly missed by all his family and friends.

From Brian Spiller

So sorry to hear about Arthur's death.A very nice person and sailed with him when he was C/O on SA Vaal and I was 3/O on watch with him.

Sadly the only photo I have of him was this one of him wondering what I was doing up the radar mast while on watch!!

Obituary - 2017

Memories of Arthur Wigham

From Robin Plumley

Very sorry to hear this sad news. I sailed with Arthur on the Pendennis. I was involved in a newspaper visit in East London which got me into trouble when we got to Durban. I wasn’t wearing my cap for the photo when called up from No. 5 hatch to do an impromptu bridge visit.

Arthur F Wigham

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