VILLAGE’S FIRST WAR VICTIM GOES DOWN WITH SHIP

Bobbie Bishop reported missing after sub sinks his vessel.

John R. “Bobbie” Bishop, twenty years old on February 26, is the Village of Larchmont’s first casualty of World War No. 2, it was learned Sunday when the Navy Department revealed that he was aboard a U.S. merchant vessel torpedoed off the Eastern Seaboard.

Young Bishop, son of William E. Bishop of the Premier Apartments, 132 Boston Post Road, Larchmont, was an able-bodied seaman aboard the ship, which the Navy Department did not identify by name. The 23 survivors of the 36-man crew were taken by a rescue vessel to Savannah, Georgia.

The sinking occurred on March 18 and the family has been notified that young patient is “missing.”

The boy was born in New York city and came here as a child with his parents. He attended Chatsworth Avenue School and Junior High School and had just entered the Mamaroneck Senior High School when he quit to go to work in December, 1938. He joined the Merchant Marine last summer.

Surviving, in addition to the father, are two sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Ostuni of Atlanta, Georgia and Miss Annabelle Bishop, a junior at Mamaroneck High School, and one brother, William H. Bishop, also of the Boston Post Road address.

Bishop’s ship was lost in surprise night attack that hurled the unsuspecting seamen out of their bunks onto flaming decks and into a cold sea. Bishop was among the 13 missing men.

Discuss this topic in our forums, or send a letter to the editors.