Edward James Thornhill
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Son of James and Olive Kathleen Thornhill of Nottingham; husband of Caroline Margery Thornhill of Nottingham
HMS Prince of Wales
HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. She had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her drydock when she was attacked and damaged by German aircraft.
In her brief career, she was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait against the German battleship Bismarck, escorting one of the Malta convoys in the Mediterranean, and then attempting to intercept Japanese troop convoys off the coast of Malaya when she was lost on 10 December 1941.
A torpedo struck Prince of Wales on the port side aft, abaft "Y" Turret, wrecking the outer propeller shaft on that side and destroying bulkheads to one degree or another along the shaft all the way to B Engine Room. This caused rapid uncontrollable flooding and put the entire electrical system in the after part of the ship out of action. Lacking effective damage control, she soon took on a heavy list.
Six aircraft later attacked Prince of Wales, hitting her with three torpedoes, causing further damage and flooding. Finally, a 500-kilogram (1,100 lb) bomb hit Prince of Wales's catapult deck, penetrated to the main deck, where it exploded, causing many casualties in the makeshift aid centre in the Cinema Flat. Several other bombs from this attack scored very 'near misses', indenting the hull, popping rivets and causing hull plates to split along the seams and intensifying the flooding.
At 13:15 the order to abandon ship was given, and at 13:20 Prince of Wales capsized and sank; Admiral Phillips and Captain Leach were among the 327 fatalities which included Able Seamen Spencer Halfnight from Mansfield and Paul Wilkinson form Bilborough along with Electrical Artificer 4th Class Edward Thornhill from Nottingham and Engine Room Artificer 5th Class Howard Scott from Bingham.
The wreck of Prince of Wales lies upside down in 223 feet of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea. (Wikipedia)
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