MV Putney Hill was a cargo ship completed by William Doxford & Sons Ltd in Sunderland in 1940.

[4] Putney Hill was a sister ship of MV Tower Grange, which Doxford built in the same year for another CSM company, Tower Steamships Co Ltd. Putney Hill was sailing in ballast and unescorted in the Atlantic about 450 miles east of Puerto Rico when at 0544 hrs on 26 June 1942 the German submarine U-203 hit her with one torpedo[1] in the port side, breaching her no.

[3] Putney Hill's two port lifeboats were destroyed by the blast so her crew abandoned ship with her two starboard boats and a liferaft.

[3] The sinking of Putney Hill's bow temporarily raised her stern in the water, exposing her propeller, and Campbell was last seen clinging to it.

[3] On the tenth day the Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Saxifrage sighted the boats and rescued the survivors: the Master, 29 crew and five DEMS gunners.