Trafford

HMS President III was an accounting base, initially in Bristol and then
Windsor, it was the HQ for the personnel on Defensively Armed Merchant
Ships.

See web-site - http://www.carlscam.com/stockport/sstockport.htm

Memorial In St Peter's Church, Stockport to the men who were lost on the
S.S. Stockport.  The memorial is in the form of a ship's Bell engraved SS
Stockport, two crests (representing the Merchant Navy Association, and the
Hazel Grove Branch of the Royal Naval Association), and a well polished
brass panel engraved with the names of the crew of the SS Stockport which
disappeared in the North Atlantic in 1943. 

The SS Stockport disappeared in the North Atlantic on 24th February 1943,
most probably sunk by a German submarine. On board were the 64 man crew
named on this memorial, and an unknown number of "survivors" pulled from
the sea by the Stockport after their own ships had been torpedoed. 

In peacetime the Stockport had been a passenger-cargo steamer. Her home
port was Grimsby. She plied the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER)
company's routes across the North Sea to Holland. 

Her wartime role was as hospital rescue ship escorting convoys across the
Atlantic Ocean. She survived several convoys in which many ships were sunk,
rescuing over 400 of their crew. At 1,600 tons, and with a top speed on a
good day of only 13 knots, the 30 year old ship was not best suited to the
North Atlantic in mid winter. 

On convoy duty, when the explosion of a torpedo announced the presence of
U-boats, other ships left the vicinity as swiftly as possible, but the
Stockport's lonely task was to steam towards the site of the explosion and
search for survivors. Without the protection of a convoy, the Stockport was
an easy target. Her crew regularly risked their own lives to save others. 

Several ships were sunk as convoy ON-166 made its way across the ocean.
Each time the Stockport stopped to rescue survivors she lagged further
behind. No one knows the exact details of her last moments.