Leading Telegraphist Henry Wilson

Leading Telegraphist Henry John Robert Trotter Wilson,  Royal Navy . He died aboard H.M.S. “Saumarez” on 22nd October 1946 aged 21 when the destroyer hit an uncleared mine in the Corfu Strait. 30 sailors in the forward part of the ship were lost. He had been born in Berwick-upon-Tweed and was the son of  Henry and Marion Wilson of Lenihale, Lennel, Coldstream and Kirtlebridge, Dumfries and is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial.  H.M.S. “Saumaurez” was part of a destroyer force which sank the Japanese heavy cruiser “Haguro” on the 16th May 1945 in the Pacific.  On the 26th December 1943  during the Battle of the North Cape it also took part in sinking of the German Battlecruiser Scharnhorst. 11 seamen were killed on the “Saumarez” during the battle. The ship was towed stern first back to Malta by another destroyer H.M.S. ” Volage” and from there back to the U.K. where it was declared a total loss and scrapped at Rosyth.

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