PD/JX 144154, Leading Seaman, Gerald Sidney ROE
Aged 21
Killed in Action on Saturday 8th June 1940
He is not named on the Newmarket War Memorial
ROE, Gerald
PD/JX 144154, Leading Seaman, Gerald Sidney ROE
Aged 21
He is not named on the Newmarket War Memorial
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Born in Q4-1918 [Brentford 3a:133], the son of Arthur Vernal and Melinda Annie Lilian ROE (née WYATT) later of Manor House, High Street, Newmarket. In the 1939 register his widowed mother Melinda [19-4-1885] was with his brother Herbert D ROE [30-6-1920] watchmaker/jeweller/ARP warden, at Manor House, Newmarket. His father had died in Bedford in 1923. They do not appear on the 1936 Newmarket directory. |
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He died when the HMS Glorious, a cruiser converted to aircraft carrier, was returning to Scapa Flow from Norway with just her destroyer escorts, Acasta and Ardent. They were spotted by the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst at about 1600. Acasta and Ardent attempted to lay a smoke screen and to engage the German ships, Glorious was first hit at 16:38. The 3rd salvo from the Scharnhorst reached Glorious from 15 miles (24 km), possibly the longest gunfire hit on any enemy warship ever achieved at that time. It hit her hangars and made it impossible to launch the aircraft that were on the point of readiness The three British ships were sunk by gunfire in a little over two hours, with the loss of over 1500 officers and men of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, and Royal Air Force. |
Commonwealth War Graves Commission photo
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