CROSS, Robert Claire

Credit: CWGC

Cook (O)

HMS Hood

Royal Navy

Robert was born on the 17th of June 1920 in Newport to Jack Claire & Gertrude Mary (nee WHITE) CROSS who were living at ‘Fernleigh’, Buckberry Lane in Newport around the time of Robert’s death.

Robert was an officers Cook aboard the Battlecruiser HMS Hood, when on the 24 May 1941 she intercepted Bismarck & her consort, the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, in the Denmark Strait between Greenland & Iceland. A fierce gun battle took place, The Hood was badly damaged & sank stern first with 1,418 men aboard, including his younger brother Raymond. Only three men survived.

Robert, aged 20, was never recovered & he is commemorated by the Commission on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial to The Missing together with over 15,000 of his Second World War shipmates.

Robert is also remembered on the Newport Borough War Memorial.

CWGC Casualty Record

Cemetary

Sons & Daughters Commemorated Far From Home

Those from the Newport & Carisbrooke area who are buried or commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission outside of the area, both in the UK and in other countries.

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The image is of the Tyne Cot Military Cemetery & Memorial in Belgium.