Navy LSGC To An Australian Born Seaman KIA In 1941

Naval LSGC ( Geo VI ) J107333 J L GRANT AB HMS DECOY

Able Seaman John Lindsay Grant was born in Freemantle Australia in September 1906 and joined the Royal navy as a 16 year old boy in May 1923.

He served on various ships during his career and was killed in action on the 21st of April 1941 when HMS Drake the Naval shore base at Plymouth was bombed

'On 20 April 1941, from Wren Headquarters, we realised H.M.S. Drake was the target. I eventually arrived at Casualty Office to utter tragedy. Five bombs had straddled the huge dormitory of the P.O's Mess. My own office block opposite was full of debris and glass. During the morning, tarpaulins were laid out by the parade ground and by noon, dozens of bodies were being recovered. Identification was difficult, for many men were in night-clothes.

I suppose many men had slipped put on greatcoats. One young sailor was identified by the tag on his coat. Dozens of telegrams went to next of kin and eventually, later on, our Casualty Office Wrens stood and watched as the sad procession of gun carriages, draped in Union Jacks, left H.M.S. Drake, some to Weston Mill cemetery …'

Muriel Holland, an ex-C.P.O. in the W.R.N.S., recalls the tragic events of 20-21 April 1941, when Boscawen block at H.M.S. Drake was heavily damaged in an enemy raid; see the 'B.B.C. WW2 People's War' website.

Muriel Holland, an ex-C.P.O. in the W.R.N.S., recalls the tragic events of 20-21 April 1941, when Boscawen block at H.M.S. Drake was heavily damaged in an enemy raid; see the 'B.B.C. WW2 People's War' website.

In total 113 Naval personnel lost their lives

In early May 1941, Winston Churchill, accompanied by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, and Lady Nancy Astor, M.P., visited the ruined barracks at Drake. They saw the gymnasium filled with coffins and met some forty injured sailors who had survived the air raid, the two groups separated only be a low curtain.


Full Service papers available on - line

Medal in toned EF condition

Code: 51119