First Radio Officer Adam Balmer

First Radio Officer Adam Girvan Balmer, Merchant Navy. He was lost at sea aboard S.S. “Cymbeline” on 2nd September 1940 aged 36. He had been born in Greenlaw and was the son of Adam and Mary Balmer of Northmuir, Greenlaw and is commemorated on the Tower Hill Memorial, London. The S.S. “Cymbeline” was a tanker of 6,300 tons on Admiralty Service en route from Gibraltar to Trinidad when she was intercepted by the German commerce raider” Widder” in the Atlantic South West of the Cape Verde Islands. “Widder” first shelled the tanker  to try and prevent  any S.O.S. signals being sent and then sank her by torpedo. 7 of the crew were killed including all the radiomen who had been the primary target. The raider picked up 26 survivors but the Captain, First Officer and Third Engineer escaped to be picked up later by the Tanker ” Yolanda ” and taken to Venezuela