Arthur F 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.

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