RUSSELL, John Ashley Guildford

Portsmouth Naval Memorial, UKCredit: CWGC

Petty Officer
HMS Hood - Battlecruiser
Royal Navy

John was born on the 21st of December 1916 in Newport to Ashley Heywood & Beatrice Maud (nee LEAL) RUSSELL of Newport.

On the 24th of May 1941 Hood 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, only three men survived.

John, aged 24, was one of those lost; his body was never recovered & so he is commemorated by the Commission upon the Portsmouth Naval Memorial to those Lost at Sea together with nearly 15,000 of his Second World War shipmates.

John 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.