Showing 393 results

People & Organisations
GB-2014-WSA-03834 · Person · 1919-1941

Brock, Donald Alastair Carey, son of Capt. Donald Carey Brock CBE RN, of Guernsey, and his first wife Jocelyn Florence, d. of Admiral John Denison DSO RN, of Alverstoke, Hants; b. 7 Aug. 1919; adm. Sept. 1932 (A); left Dec. 1936; Cadet RN Jan. 1937, Sub.-Lieut. Apr. 1939, Lieut. July 1940; lost in HMS Bonaventure March 1941.

Donald Alastair Carey Brock was born at Alverstoke, Hampshire on the 7th of August 1919 the elder son of Captain Donald Carey Brock CBE RN and Jocelyn Florence (nee Denison) Brock of “Alvermead”, Alverstoke, Gosport, Hampshire and of 32, Troy Court, Kensington in London. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Ashburnham from September 1932 to December 1936. During his youth he was a regular visitor to Canada, where his maternal grandparents lived; he spent his summers at Muskoka and was regarded as an expert swimmer.
He joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet on a special entry cadetship in January 1937 and was appointed as a Midshipman on the 1st of January 1938. He was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant in April 1939 and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 16th of July 1940. He was posted to the crew of the light cruiser HMS Bonaventure (31).
Convoy GA-8 set sail from Piraeus in Greece on the night of the 29th of March 1941 bound for Alexandria. The convoy was made up of the transports HMS Breconshire and HMS Cameronia, escorted by three destroyers as part of Operation Lustre, the movement of Allied troops and supplies to reinforce Greece. HMS Bonaventure, under the command of Captain Henry Jack Egerton RN, joined the convoy at the dawn on the following day. At 8.37pm that night two torpedoes were fired at HMS Bonaventure by the Italian submarine Dagabur, under the command of Captain Domenico Romano, which missed her and exploded in open water.
At 3am on the morning of the 31st of March 1941 she was sailing in a south easterly direction midway between Crete and Alexandria, some 100 nautical miles to the south-south-east of Crete, when she was hit amidships by two torpedoes fired by the Italian submarine Ambra, under the command of Captain Mario Arillo. The explosion caused extensive flooding in both engine rooms and she sank in less than six minutes. The enemy submarine was heavily depth charged during seven attacks by the escort destroyer HMAS Stuart and after the second attack the submarine broke surface before crash diving. HMAS Stuart experienced a near miss from a torpedo which exploded in the water fifty yards off her stern as she ran in for one of her attacks.
Twenty three officers and one hundred and fifteen ratings had been killed in the attack with three hundred and ten men being rescued from the sea by HMAS Stuart and the escort destroyer HMS Hereward. The convoy reached Alexandria during the late afternoon without further incident.
He is commemorated on a memorial plaque at the Cathedral Church of St James, Toronto and on the war memorial at St John’s Cemetery on the Humber, Toronto.
He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial Panel 44, Column 2.

GB-2014-WSA-04003 · Person · 1865-1915

BRUCE, CHARLES THOMAS, eldest son of Hon. Thomas Charles Bruce MP, and Sarah Caroline, eldest dau. of Thomas Thornhill, Riddlesworth Hall, Norfolk; grandson of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin and 11th Earl of Kincardine (S) (qv); b. 21 Feb 1865; adm. (H) 15 Jun 1876; left Mar 1880; Magdalene Coll. Cambridge, matr. Mich. 1883; attached to Sir Henry Drummond Wolff’s mission to Constantinople and Egypt, 1885-6; member, Royal Company of Archers, Scotland; went out to Flanders Sep 1915 as Commandant of a Belgian field hospital; m. 1st, 8 Jul 1897 Edith Mary, eldest dau. of Samuel Sandbach Parker, Aigburth, Lancs.; m. 2nd, 7 Jul 1914 Gwendolen Mary, eldest dau. of Robert Thomas Napier Speir DL, Burnbrae and Culdees, Perthshire; d. in London 23 Oct 1915, from enteric fever contracted in Flanders.

GB-2014-WSA-04053 · Person · 1901-1943

Buckley, Edmund Graham, son of Edmund Frazer Buckley, of Chelsea, barrister-at-law, by Helen Margaret, daughter of Edward Castle, Q. C., of South Kensington and sister of Reginald Wingfield Castle (q.v.); b. May 5, 1901; adm. Jan. 14, 1915 (G); left July 1919; R. M.C. Sandhurst; 2nd Lieut. 3rd Batt. Rifle Brigade July 14, 1921; Lieut. July 14, 1923; seconded under the Colonial Office to the Iraq Levies May 14, 1923; Capt. 3rd (Assyrian) Batt. Iraq Levies July 4, 1923; mentioned in despatches for services in Iraq April-May 1927; M.B.E. 1933; Major Aug. 1, 1938; served with B. E. F. in Greece and as a liaison officer with Greek troops in Egypt; Gold Cross of Royal Order of George I with Swords 1942; m. Oct. 14, 1933, Margaret Elisabeth, daughter of Frank Bailey, of Chelsea; d. of wounds received in Greece Jan. 21, 1943.

Edmund Graham Buckley was born at Chelsea, London on the 5th of May 1901 the son of Edmund Frazer Buckley, a barrister at law, and Helen Margaret (nee Castle) Buckley of 2, Carlyle Gardens, Cheyne Row, Chelsea in London. He was christened at Holy Trinity Church, Chelsea on the 2nd of June 1901.
He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Grant’s from the 14th of January 1915 to July 1919. He was a member of the 1st Cricket XI in 1918 and of the 2nd Football XI in 1917 and 1918. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps and was promoted to Lance Corporal in January 1918. He was appointed as a Monitor in September 1918. On leaving school he attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst from where he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) on the 24th of July 1921. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 14th of July 1923 and was seconded to the Colonial Office for service with the Iraqi Levies on the 14th of May 1923, setting sail for Basrah on board the SS Rotenfels on the following day. He was promoted to Captain on the 4th of July 1923 and was attached to the 3rd (Assyrian) Battalion, Iraqi Levies.
He was Mentioned in Despatches for “distinguished services” during operations in the Penjwin area of Iraq for the period April to May 1927, which was announced by the Air Ministry on the 23rd of March 1928. He was awarded the MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List, which was announced in the London Gazette of the 6th of June 1933. He was promoted to Major on the 1st of August 1938
He was married on the 14th of October 1933 to Margaret Elizabeth (nee Bailey) and they lived at Old Rectory, Boscombe in Wiltshire. He was a member of the Cavendish Club.
During the Second World War he served in Greece and as a Liaison Officer with Greek troops in Egypt for which he was awarded Gold Cross of the Royal Order of George I with Swords (Greece) by King George of the Hellenes shortly before his death.
He was later appointed as the commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion of his Regiment.
He died at the Military Hospital for Head Injuries, St Hugh’s College, Oxford.
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Boscombe.
He is commemorated at Oxford Crematorium on the left hand column.

GB-2014-WSA-04055 · Person · 1892-1916

Buckman, James Leslie, only son of James Buckman, of East Dulwich, Surrey, Borough Treasurer of Bermondsey, by Mary Jane, daughter of James Neighbour, of London; b. Nov. 11, 1892; adm. May 2, 1907 (A); left Dec. 1910; Wadham Coll. Oxon., matric. Michaelmas 1911; adm. to the Middle Temple April 5, 1911; 2nd Lieut. 8th (Service) Batt. Gloucs, Regt. Nov. 14, 1914; Lieut. Feb. 13, 1915, 12th (Service) Batt. (Bermondsey) East Surrey Regt. June 29, 1915; Capt. Oct. 9, 1915; went out to the western front May 1, 1916; killed in action at Fiers, France, Sept. 15, 1916; unm.

GB-2014-WSA-04087 · Person · 1892-1917

Bull, Roland John Howard, eldest son of Henry John Howard Bull, of Hammersmith, solicitor, by Bertha Frances, daughter of Frederick John Nash, of Tulse Hill, Surrey; b. April 10, 1892; adm. Jan. 19, 1905 (A); left July 1907; adm. a solicitor Dec. 1913, and became a partner in the firm of Bull and Bull, of London and Hammersmith; joined the Artists' Rifles Feb. 24, 1909; 2nd Lieut. 16th (co. of London) Batt. the London Regt. (Queen's Westminster Rifles) Aug. 26, 1914; Lieut. June 25, 1915; Capt. May 24, 1917; went out to the western front Sept. 29, 1915; attached to the R.E. for Army Signal Service Sept. 13, 1916, and subsequently to 8th Heavy Artillery; killed accidentally July 13, 1917; unm.

GB-2014-WSA-04117 · Person · 1914-1944

Bune, John Cuthbert, son of Frank Cuthbert Bune, barrister-at-law, of Beckenham, and Gladys, d. of Henry Collins of Bromley, Kent; b. 17 Apr. 1914; adm. Sept. 1927 (A); left July 1932; St Cath. Coll. Camb., matric. 1933, BA 1936; Roy. Fusiliers 1939, transf. Parachute Regt (Maj.); m. Hilda Dorothy, d. of H. W. Thompson of Sydney, NSW; killed in action at Arnhem 17 Sept. 1944.

John Cuthbert Bune was born at Beckenham, Kent on the 17th of April 1914 the eldest son of Frank Cuthbert Bune, a barrister at law, and Gladys (nee Collins) Bune of 14, Oakwood Avenue, Beckenham, Kent, later of Lucas Grange, Haywards Heath in Sussex. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Ashburnham from September 1927 to July 1932. He was a member of the 1st Cricket XI in 1932. He served as a Lance Corporal in the Officer Training Corps and achieved a School Certificate in December 1930. He then attended St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School. He matriculated for St Catherine’s College, Cambridge on the 2nd of November 1933 where he read English and Law and graduated with a BA on the 23rd of June 1936. He won a Half Blue for Swimming in 1936 and was also a member of the University Water Polo team when they played Oxford in 1936. He went on to study law and was called to the Bar in 1941.
He was married at St Clement Danes, Strand on the 25th of November 1939 to Hilda Dorothy (nee Thompson) of Barton-on-Sea in Hampshire. They had two daughters, Susan S. born in 1940 and Alexandra J. C., born on the 9th of September 1943.
He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 11th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) on the 2nd of September 1939 and rose to the rank of Major before transferring to the Parachute Regiment on the 18th of April 1944. By September 1944 he had been appointed as second in command of the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.
At 8pm on the 15th of September 1944 John Bune was called to an officer’s briefing to receive orders for the Battalion’s part in Operation Market Garden, an airborne operation in conjunction with land forces to secure a river crossing across the Lower River Rhine, which was due to begin just 36 hours later. All other personnel were briefed the following day.
On the morning of the 17th of September 1944, the Battalion moved to Barkston Heath airfield where they boarded transport aircraft and took off at 11.30am. They landed at Renkum Heath, to the west of the town of Arnhem, at between 2.03pm and 2.08pm and had assembled by 2.45pm with only three men missing. They moved off from the drop zone at 3.40pm. Twenty minutes later they arrived at a railway station where they were briefed by an officer of the Reconnaissance Corps that there were enemy troops further up the railway line to their east and tanks on the road to the north. Unable to get up the railway line, they set out up the Amsterdamseweg, by which time the enemy tanks had withdrawn. At 5pm R Company attacked strong enemy positions astride the road, inflicting heavy casualties among the enemy troops and forcing them back. The Company then advanced to the Wolfhezerweg junction, where they became heavily engaged with enemy tanks and infantry and were unable to disengage when the rest of the Battalion went around this obstacle. Contact with R Company was lost at 6pm.
At 7.30pm, John Bune was sent back to make contact with R Company, returning at 10pm with the second in command of the Company who reported that, although they had managed to disengage, forward progress was slow as half of his men had become casualties and were in need of evacuation. The Battalion Medical Officer was ordered to take all available jeeps to evacuate the wounded with John Bune joining this party for the return to R Company’s positions. Although the convoy of wounded later reached Oosterbeek and were delivered to the dressing station at the Hartenstein Hotel, John Bune’s group is believed to have run into an ambush in the vicinity of the Dreyenseweg during which he was killed. He was recorded as missing at 3am the following morning. His body was recovered and was buried alongside the Dreyenseweg but was later exhumed and moved to its present location.
The St Catharine’s Society Magazine wrote of him: -
“It has been said that soldiering was among the last professions that John Bune would have chosen, for by instinct he was independent and Bohemian, impatient of routine and of a systematic society; but once in arms he turned the circumstance to glorious account. For the first four and a half years of the war he was in the Royal Fusiliers, and reached the rank of Major. Then, fearing that the years of his training might go for nothing, he transferred and became, in April 1944, second in command of the 1st Battalion, the Parachute Regiment. And so to Arnhem. Bune came to S. Catharine's from Westminster, and gained his Half- Blue for swimming. Literature was, perhaps, his strongest interest, but, like his father, he turned to law, and in 1941 was called to the Bar. He leaves a widow and two daughters.”
He is commemorated on the war memorial at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
He is buried at Arnhem Oosterbeek War Cemetery Plot 27, Row B, Grave 6.

GB-2014-WSA-04119 · Person · 1926-1946

Bunting, Paul Lidgett, brother of Christopher Evelyn Bunting (qv); b. 29 Dec. 1926; adm. Sept. 1941 (H); left July 1944; Trin. Coll. Camb., matric. 1944; RN (FAA); accidentally killed on active service 5 July 1946.

Paul Lidgett Bunting was born at Queen’s Road, Bayswater, London on the 29th of December 1926 the son of Sheldon Arthur Steward Bunting MA, MBE, MICE, BSc an engineer for the Indian Public Works Department, and Kathleen (nee Collett) Bunting of 33, Kingsley Way, Hampstead, London N2 and of Northleach, near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire
He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Homeboarders from September 1941 to July 1944. He matriculated for Trinity College, Cambridge on the 1st of October 1944 as a Royal Navy Officer Cadet. He was posted to the Royal Naval School of Music near Burford, Oxfordshire.
On the night of the 4th/5th of July 1946, Paul Bunting was one of a number of Marines who were traveling in a lorry while returning from leave in Cheltenham to their base at Burford. At midnight the lorry was in collision with a civilian lorry at Hangman’s Stone, near Northleach. He died at the scene from a fracture to the base of his skull; his body was taken to Northleach mortuary.
The dead and injured were: -
Musician Charles Walter Montgomery (Died from injuries at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford) Musician G. De Peyer (Injured)
Musician Paul Lidgett Bunting
Musician B. Farmer (Injured)
Marine L. Midham (Head injuries)
Coporal C.W. Freeland

An inquiry was held into the accident which concluded that the naval lorry had been traveling over the centre line of the road at a speed of 30-35 miles per hour when the collision occurred. The Coroner concluded: - “There is no evidence here of undue speeding, and I think of the two drivers concerned, Ogden, the Royal Marine driver, was to blame for the collision. Whatever carelessness there was on his part amounts to nothing more than to justify me recording a verdict of misadventure.”
He is commemorated on the war memorial at Trinity College, Cambridge.
He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial Panel 94.

GB-2014-WSA-04149 · Person · 1916-1941

Burke, Edmund Seymour, son of Edmund Burke, of Kingston Hill, Surrey; b. 11 Aug. 1916; adm. Sept. 22, 1931 (R); left July 1935; Pembroke Coll. Oxon., matric. Michaelmas 1935; Sub-Lieut. (A) R.N.V.R.; killed in action 30 Jul. 1941.

Edmund Seymour Burke was born at Rathdown, Ireland on the 11th of August 1916 the elder son of Edmund “Edo” Burke, a company director, and Sylvia Jayne (nee Hardy) Burke of the Glenridge Hotel, Virginia Water in Surrey and of the Granby Court Hotel, 88/89, Queen’s Gate, Brompton in London. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Rigaud’s from September 1931 to July 1935. He played the part of Jane West in the Rigaud’s House Play of “The Fourth Wall” in 1934. He matriculated for Pembroke College, Oxford on the 15th of October 1935.
On leaving university he worked as an assistant tea buyer. He appeared as an extra in “A Yank at Oxford”, released on the 18th of February 1938 and was credited for his role as the First Officer in the play “The Infinite Shoeblack”, which was released in 1939.
He was enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve where he trained as a pilot and was later commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant (A). He was posted to 800 Naval Air Squadron based on board the aircraft carrier HMS Furious.
On the 30th of July 1941, the Royal Navy launched Operation EF, an attack on enemy merchant shipping in the Norwegian port of Kirkenes and on the Finnish port of Liinakhamari in Petsamo. The aircraft on board the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious would attack the Norwegian port while those on board HMS Furious would attack the port at Petsamo. The operation was intended to catch the enemy by surprise but the fleet was spotted by a German aircraft and their presence was relayed back to the two ports. When the formation arrived over Petsamo little shipping was present in the port. Instead the aircraft attacked the harbour installations, hitting jetties, a warehouse and an oil tank, which was set on fire. They met enemy fighter opposition and heavy anti aircraft fire in the target area.
Edmund Burke and his Observer, Leading Airman Arthur James Beardsley, took off from HMS Furious in Fulmar Mk II N4029 one of six aircraft from the Squadron which were to form the fighter escort for the operation on Petsamo. On its way to the target the aircraft was flying over the Barents Sea when it suffered an engine failure and was forced to crash land on to the sea. The two men were seen to swim clear of the aircraft and pull themselves into their life raft. HMS Furious was unable to pick the two men up due to the presence of enemy aircraft and submarines in the area.
Theirs was one of sixteen aircraft which were lost during the two operations.
His father received the following telegram: - “From Admiralty. Deeply regret to inform you that your son Sub Lieutenant (A) E.S. Burke is reported missing on active service.”
In 2017 a Russian journalist contacted the British Consulate in Moscow to say the he had found two graves marked “two unknown English airmen” on the Rybachy Peninsular in Northern Russia. It was discovered that the two bodies had been found in their dingy by nomadic travellers who had buried them on the beach. It is believed that they had died from hypothermia. Their bodies were exhumed, identified and reburied at their present resting place in July 2017 with an honour guard made up of British and Russian servicemen.
His brother, Pilot Officer Ian Campbell Burke OW, 142 Squadron, Royal Air Force, was killed in action on the 20th of September 1941.
He is buried at Vaida Bay Military Cemetery Grave 5.

GB-2014-WSA-04150 · Person · 1917-1941

Burke, Ian Campbell, brother of Edmund Seymour Burke (q.v.); b. Aug. 14, 1917; adm. Sept. 22, 1931 (R); left April 1935; Pilot Officer, R.A.F.V.R. Jan. 5, 1941; killed in action 20 Sept. 1941.

Ian Campbell Burke was born at 89, Lower Sagget Street, Dublin on the 14th of August 1917 the younger son of Edmund Burke Edmund “Edo” Burke, a company director, and Sylvia Jayne (nee Hardy) Burke of Glenridge Hotel, Virginia Water in Surrey in Surrey and of the Granby Court Hotel, 88/89, Queen’s Gate, Brompton in London. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Rigaud’s from the 22nd of September 1931 to April 1935.
On leaving school he was articled to a firm of Chartered Accountants and later worked as a tea salesroom assistant. He achieved a Royal Aero Club Certificate (No. 19921) at the Horton Kirby Flying Club on the 28th of August 1939, while flying a DH Moth, Gypsy Mk I. On the outbreak of war he was a member of the Civil Air Guard.
He enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve where he rose to the rank of Leading Aircraftman before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 11th of January 1941, with seniority from the 5th of January 1941.
On the night of the 19th/20th of September 1941, Bomber Command dispatched 70 aircraft, most of which were Wellingtons, for an operation on Stettin. 60 aircraft reached and bombed the target but most crews had trouble locating the industrial targets allocated to them.
Ian Burke and his crew took off from RAF Binbrook before landing at RAF Mildenhall to refuel, from where they took off again at 10.58pm on the 19th of September 1941 in Wellington Mk II W5384 QT- for the operation. During the outward flight the port engine failed and the aircraft aborted its mission. It continued flying using only its starboard engine for most of the return flight. When its remaining engine also failed the aircraft was forced to ditch in the sea some eight miles to the east of Orford Ness, Suffolk at 3am. Five of the crew failed to get to the dinghy and were lost with only one of the crew being rescued.
The crew was: -
Pilot Officer Ian Campbell Burke (Pilot)
Sergeant Alexander Carstairs (Navigator)
Sergeant John Graham Jones (Wireless Operator)
Sergeant Trevor Gordon Lister (2nd Pilot)
Sergeant David John Mackintosh (Air Gunner)
Sergeant T.J. Rayment (Rear Gunner) (Injured)
Theirs was one of two aircraft which were lost during the raid.
The only survivor, Sergeant Rayment, later related that the port engine had failed two hours into the flight and before the aircraft had reached the target. The pilot turned the aircraft around and jettisoned the bomb load over enemy territory before flying for home at between 2,000 and 3,000 feet. While close to the Suffolk coast the starboard engine suddenly failed and a “good” landing was made on the sea. All of the crew were standing by to evacuate the aircraft and it not known why the remaining members of the crew did not survive. Sergeant Rayment was rescued and taken to the Naval Sick Bay at Ipswich where he was treated for exposure. It is thought that the port engine failed due to a leak in its coolant system but the failure of the starboard engine remains unexplained.
The body of John Jones was washed ashore on the 29th of September and was taken to the mortuary at RAF Martlesham where it was discovered that he had been killed by bullet wounds to the head and neck.
His brother, Sub Lieutenant (A) Edmund Seymour Burke RNVR OW, 800 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm was killed in action on the 30th of July 1941.
He is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial Panel 31.

GB-2014-WSA-04264 · Person · 1902-1942

Buttar, Charles Philip, son of Charles Buttar (q.v.); b. Jan. 26, 1902; adm. April 29, 1915 (G); left Dec. 1918; Midshipman R. N. Jan. 8, 1922; Sub-Lieut. Dec. 15, 1923; Lieut. (E) Feb. 15, 1926; Eng.-Lieut.-Cdr. Feb. 15, 1934; Commander June 30, 1938; m. July 17, 1930, Margaret Elaine, daughter of Major William Stanford; lost in the sinking of H. M. S. Dorsetshire by Japanese aircraft in the Bay of Bengal, April 5, 1942.

Charles Philip Buttar was born at Bayswater, London on the 26th of January 1902 the son of Dr Charles Buttar MD OW and Georgianna Isabel (nee Syrett) Buttar of 10, Kensington Square Gardens in London. He was christened at Bayswater on the 7th of April 1902. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Grant’s from the 29th of April 1915 to December 1918.
He entered the Royal Navy on a Special Entry Cadetship on the 8th of September 1920 and was appointed as a Midshipman on the 8th of January 1922. He joined the battleship HMS Valiant for engineering training on the 15th of January 1922 and went on to the Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham for further engineering training on the 4th of May 1922. He was commissioned as a Sub Lieutenant on the 15th of December 1923. He was promoted to Acting Lieutenant (E) on the 15th of February 1926 and to Engineer Lieutenant Commander on the 15th of February 1934.
He was married at St Philip’s Church, Kensington on the 17th of July 1930 to Margaret Elaine (Goodfellow, nee Stanford) and they lived at 131, Banbury Road, Oxford. They had a daughter, Susannah, born on the 15th of August 1933. He was serving on board HMS Coventry at the time and was later posted to the heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire (40). He was promoted to Commander (E) on the 30th of June 1938.
At the beginning of April 1942, HMS Dorsetshire, under the command of Captain Augustus Willington Shelton Agar VC, DSO RN, was undergoing a refit at Colombo, Ceylon, in order to increase her anti aircraft armament, when she was ordered to put to sea as British Intelligence had warned her that a Japanese battle fleet was approaching Ceylon from the east.
At 10pm on the evening of the 4th of April 1942, HMS Dorsetshire, and the heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall (56) set sail from Colombo and headed towards the Maldives where they were to rendezvous with other ships at 4pm the following day. At dawn on the 5th of April 1942 they were sailing in waters some 300 miles to the south west of Ceylon when action stations were sounded.
At 1pm a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft was spotted which was followed a short time later by 53 Japanese “Val” dive bombers which had been launched from enemy aircraft carriers and began to attack the ship from out of the sun at 1.40pm. In spite of fierce resistance from the crew, HMS Dorsetshire was struck ten times by 250lbs and 500lbs bombs and had several near missies. Her magazine was struck during the attack and she sank in just eight minutes. HMS Cornwall was also sunk. Captain Agar survived the sinking but Charles Buttar was one of two hundred and twenty-seven of his crew who did not. The survivors of both ships were in the water for some thirty hours before being picked up by the cruiser HMS Enterprise and the destroyers HMS Paladin and HMS Panther.
He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial Panel 63, Column 1.