Thomas Kenneth Darlington

PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL Panel 64, Column 3.

HMS Trinidad

HMS Trinidad was a Royal Navy Crown Colony-class cruiser (also known as the Fiji class) built by HM Dockyard Devonport. She was laid down on 21 April 1938, launched 21 March 1941 and commissioned on 14 October 1941. The ship served with the British Home Fleet during her brief career.

While escorting Convoy PQ 13 in March 1942, she and other escorts were in combat with German Narvik-class destroyers. She hit and damaged the German destroyer Z26 and then launched a torpedo attack. One of her torpedoes had a faulty gyro mechanism, possibly affected by the icy waters; the torpedo circled back, striking Trinidad and killing 32 men. One of the survivors was composer George Lloyd, a Royal Marines bandsman who had earlier written the ship's official march. This was performed at the Last Night of the Proms on 7 September 2013, in the presence of the last surviving crewman from Trinidad.

Trinidad was towed clear of the action, and was then able to proceed under her own power towards Murmansk. The German submarine U-378 attempted to engage and sink the damaged cruiser, but was spotted and attacked by the destroyer Fury. On arrival in Murmansk she underwent partial repairs setting out to return home on May 13th 1942 escorted by Foresight, Forester, Somali and Matchless. Other ships of the Home Fleet were providing a covering force nearby.

Trinidad’s speed was reduced to 20 knots (37 km/h) owing to the damage she had sustained. En route, she was attacked by more than twenty Ju 88 bombers on 14 May 1942. All attacks missed, except for one bomb that struck near the previous damage, starting a serious fire. Sixty-three men were lost, including Able Seaman Thomas Darlington from Nottingham and twenty survivors from the cruiser Edinburgh, which had been sunk two weeks earlier.

The decision was taken to scuttle her and on 15 May 1942 she was torpedoed by Matchless and sank in the Arctic Ocean, north of North Cape. Four Czechoslovak airmen en route to Great Britain – Sergeant Vratislav Laštovička, Corporals Jan Ferák, Josef Návesník and Bohuslav Zikmund – were killed and three other airmen were rescued. (Wikipedia)

Unknown