GERRY, William Leonard

William was born 1919 in Newport to John Thomas & Freda Bessie (nee LEAL) GERRY who were living Freshwater around the time of William’s death. In March of 1942 the family had been living at 154 Carisbrooke Road in Newport.

William, aged 22, was serving aboard the S Class Destroyer HMS Stronghold, when on the 2nd of March 1942 a Japanese task group consisting of the heavy cruiser Maya & the destroyers Arashi & Nowaki, belonging to a Japanese carrier force operating south of Java, discovered & sank HMS Stronghold, which was fleeing from Tjilatjap to Freemantle, Australia with refugees. Stronghold sank at 1858 at position 12º20'S, 112º00E. About fifty survivors were picked up by the small Dutch merchant Bintoehan that later transferred them to Maya. William was one of those lost, his body never recovered from the sea.

William is commemorated by the Commission on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial to The Missing together with nearly 15,000 of his Second World War shipmates.

William is also remembered on the Newport Borough War Memorial.