Item V/iv/25 - …And Home There's No Returning

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Iago, John Martindale, son of George Martindale Iago FCA, of Harrow, and Beatrice Mary, d. of George Waldron Bowen of Knighton, Radnor; b. 16 Jan. 1916; adm. Jan. 1930 (A); left Dec. 1933; Imperial Coll. of Science, BSc 1938; RNVR 1939-41 (Lieut. (E)); lost in HMS Hood 24 May 1941.

John Martindale Iago was born at Northwood, Middlesex on the 16th of January 1916 the son of George Martindale Iago FCA, an accountant, and Beatrice Mary (nee Bowen) Iago of “Gerrans”, Crofters Road, Northwood. He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Ashburnham from January 1930 to December 1933. He played the flute solo from the First Movement from Sonata No. 4 by J.C.F. Bach at an informal concert in the Michaelmas term of 1932 and the flute solo “Gavotte” by Gossec at an informal concert in early 1933.
He went on to the Imperial College of Science from where he graduated BSc (Eng) in 1938 and also qualified as ACGI.
He was commissioned as an Electrical Sub Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the 29th of August 1939 and was posted to the crew of battlecruiser HMS Hood on the 14th of September 1939. He was promoted to Electrical Lieutenant on the 16th of January 1941. He was engaged to Dorothy Castle of Belsize Gardens in London.
At 1am on the 22nd of May 1941, the battleship HMS Hood set sail from Scapa Flow in company with the newly built battleship HMS Prince of Wales. They were escorted by the destroyers HMS Achates, HMS Antelope, HMS Anthony, HMS Echo, HMS Electra and HMS Icarus and were bound for Hvals Fjord in Iceland following reports that the German battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen had left Bergen in search of merchant shipping to attack.
By the evening of the 23rd of May they were to the south of Iceland when they received a report from the destroyer HMS Suffolk that they had sighted the Bismarck in the Straits of Denmark and at 7.39pm they increased their speed and changed course to intercept the enemy ship.
Due to the pounding seas and the high speed of the two larger ships, the escorting destroyers struggled to keep up and were given permission to drop back at 4am on the 14th of May as the two capital ships continued the hunt on their own.
The enemy ships were sighted and at 5.52am HMS Hood opened fire on Prinz Eugen at a range of 25,000 yards. Prince of Wales fired its first salvo one minute later. HMS Hood received five salvos in reply from the two enemy ships, the second and third of which bracketed the ship causing a fire to break out on the port side.
At 6am she was hit by the fifth salvo in the aft magazine, blew up, and sank in three to four minutes with the loss of 1,415 of her crew of 1,418.
His sister Beatrice “Bee” (later Kenchington) published a book of his letters called “...and Home There’s No Returning: Letters of Lieutenant John Martindale Iago RNVR from HMS 'Hood', 1939-41”
He is commemorated on the Roll of Honour of Electrical Engineers and on the memorial at the Hood Chapel at the Church of St John the Baptist, Boldre, Hampshire.
He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial Panel 60, Column 3.