IT has been described as “one of Britain’s worst naval disasters”.

On May 24, 1941, early on in the Battle of Denmark Strait, the Admiral-class battlecruiser HMS Hood was struck by several German shells, exploded, and immediately sank with the loss of all but three of her 1,418 crew.

Sadly, even the three survivors are now no longer with us.

Midshipman William Dundas tragically died in a car crash in 1965, aged 41, Able Seaman Bob Tilburn in 1995, aged 74, and Ordinary Signalman Ted Briggs on October 4, 2008, aged 85.

The rest of the crew were confined to a watery grave. So you can imagine my surprise when I spotted a Commonwealth War Graves headstone in Maldon Cemetery dedicated to someone from HMS Hood.

The inscription reads; “PO/X3436. Marine AE Wilkins RM. HMS Hood. 13th January 1941. Aged 21.”

How can that be, I wondered?

I made contact with the HMS Hood Association and so began a fascinating exchange of correspondence and a journey of genealogical research.

As the association points out, it must be remembered that as many as 18,000 men served on the ship during her 21-year operational career - from her construction in 1920, to her destruction in 1941.

Amongst them was at least one Maldon man – the late Chris Wenlock (senior), founder of Wenlock’s drapers at 85-87 High Street.

Some of those personnel, like Chris, transferred to different ships, whilst others died in service prior to her sinking and it would appear from the date on the Maldon grave that Marine Wilkins was one of them.

However, the association didn’t know much about him, so I decided to do a bit of investigating myself.

The man in question was, in fact, Arthur Ernest Wilkins, who was born, not here in Maldon, but in Hoxton, in London’s East End, on August 14, 1919.

He was the son of Alfred Ernest Wilkins (1894-1964), a storekeeper, and Amy Wilkins (née Long) (1895-1981).

Arthur was baptised at Christ Church, Hoxton, on August 31, 1919, and the family home at that stage was 1 Rushton Street, New North Road.

A sister, Doreen Helen Wilkins, was born in 1922 and it would appear that the family relocated to Maldon sometime between the completion of the National Register of 1939 and Arthur’s death in 1941. The 'PO' in Arthur’s service number indicates that he was a member of the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marines and had probably signed up for the duration.

Maldon and Burnham Standard:

  • Arthur Wilkins' grave clearly assigns him to HMS Hood

Marines ensured the security of the ship's officers and supported their maintenance of discipline in the ship's crew. In battle, they engaged the enemy's crews, whether firing from positions on their own ship, or fighting in boarding actions.

Marine Wilkins served in that very same role on HMS Hood, but in May 1940 he was ashore – hospitalised with “aberrant pneumonia”.

Interestingly, a month earlier, in April 1940, a party of 250 Marines and Seamen from Hood took part in Operation Primrose (a plan to occupy part of Norway) and all but three of that landing force returned to the ship on May 6.

We do not know if Arthur was part of that mission, but the next record tells us that he passed away, here in Maldon, on the following January 13th of “sarcoma of the lung”.

The same day that Arthur died, HMS Hood set sail from Scapa Flow to Rosyth.

On May 22, 1941, following a report that the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen had left Bergen, she headed for the Denmark Strait.

On May 23, when south of Iceland, Hood closed in on the German vessels. At 05.52hrs on May 24 she opened fire on the Prinz Eugen, but at 06.00hs Hood was hit after a salvo of return fire, blew up and sank in under four minutes.

The three survivors were picked up by the destroyer Electra and lived to tell their tale.

Arthur Wilkins, on the other hand, died unaware of what would befall his ship.

However, his parents would have read all about it in the press – “The Tragedy of HMS Hood”, as the headline of The Star described it, on the front page of their May 28 edition.

Maldon artist Charlie Tait, another naval man, mentions it in his memoires The Reluctant Sailor (published 2022).

“The news about the sinking of the Hood was very depressing. Many of our crew had oppos or mates on her. Several men wept openly”.

Somehow, Arthur’s Maldon grave is not only a remembrance of a young man’s brief wartime service and life, but also to all his shipmates.

Wars result in lost lives and loves and under a variety of sad circumstances.

In a final twist of fate, not far from Arthur’s grave you will find yet another military burial.

Here lies Lance Bombadier Ernest Clegg, of the Royal Artillery’s 70th Anti-Tank Regiment. He died on July 3, 1945, aged 26. A married man, his wife (of only three years) was Doreen Helen Clegg (née Wilkins) – Arthur’s sister.