Ceremonies mark HMS Hood sinking

The family of a Newark sailor who served aboard the second world war battle cruiser HMS Hood are to attend a commemorative service marking 75 years since it was sunk.

Kenneth Ramsey Rawson Duckworth was one of 1,415 sailors killed when the Hood went down on May 24, 1941.

Kenneth, whose name is included on the Memorial To The Fallen in Newark Cemetery, was 19.

Last year a bell from the Hood was recovered from the North Atlantic and has since been restored.

It will be unveiled at Tuesday’s commemoration service at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Kenneth joined the Royal Navy on January 5, 1937.

His brother and sister-in-law, Keith and Joyce Duckworth, who live in north Lincolnshire, are to attend the service.

They are members of the HMS Hood Association through which they meet relatives of other crew members who died.

Mrs Duckworth said: There are three veterans who are still alive today who will be joining us in Portsmouth.

“The cadets on board the day the Hood was sunk were young. Some were just 14 or 15 years old.”

Kenneth died the same year Keith was born.

“Kenneth’s parents would not talk about Kenneth to Keith because it was too upsetting,” Mrs Duckworth said.

“Keith would rely on photographs and letters and after many years his mother would speak to me about Kenneth, so I could tell Keith.”

Mr Laurence Goff, chairman of Friends of Newark Cemetery, has organised a small ceremony to pay tribute to Kenneth on Tuesday.

It will be held at 11am at the Memorial To The Fallen.

Pupils from the Mount Church of England Primary School will attend, as well as bugler Mr Roger Bryan, from Newark Town Band.

Mrs Duckworth said: “It is lovely that Laurence has organised this tribute. We will be thinking of everyone in Newark when we are in Portsmouth.

“The ceremony in Newark is just as important as the one in Portsmouth.”

HMS Hood was the last battle cruiser built for the Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1920, she was named after the 18th Century Admiral Samuel Hood.

After war was declared, Hood spent months hunting between Iceland and the Norwegian Sea for German commerce raiders and blockade runners.

Hood was later dispatched to Scapa Flow and operated in the area as a convoy escort and a defence against a potential German invasion fleet.

In May 1941, she and the battleship Prince Of Wales were ordered to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic to attack convoys.

On May 24, in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells. She exploded and sank.

The loss prompted Prime Minister Winston Churchill to signal to the Royal Navy fleet that the Bismarck should be sunk at all costs.

Two days later, heading for occupied France, Bismarck was attacked by Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

The following morning, Bismarck came under sustained bombardment from the British fleet, was scuttled by her crew, and sank with heavy loss of life.