Frederick John Reiff Wilkinson

Mansfield Chronicle Advertiser: 20/6/1941: Woodhouse Sailor's Death.
First voyage on the ill-fated Hood.
Frederick John Reiff Wilkinson aged 17 years and 4 months looked forward with great eagerness to his first sea voyage after over a year's training on shore and his enthusiaism knew no-bound when he was posted for his first voyage to HMS Hood as a 1st Class Boy.
He went into battle against the Bismark in the ill-fated vessel and official confirmation was received by his parents at 10 Gladstone Street, Mansfield Woodhouse. Before joining up he had been apprenticed to Messrs A. W. Mason (contractors) for over a year and half. He had received his education at Yorke Street School.

HMS Hood: She had taken part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916 but now she was slow and outdated. Deployed to the Home Fleet and stationed at Scapa Flow as convoy escort and to assist if Germany launched an invasion. In May 1941 she and the Prince of Wales were sent to intercept the battleship, Bismark and the heavy cruiser, Prinz Eugen, who were trying to reach the North Atlantic to attack the essential convoys crossing the Atlantic from America and Canada. They encountered the Bismark and Prinz Eugen in the Straits of Denmark in the early hours of the 24th May. At 05:52 Hood commenced shelling of Prinz Eugen. At 06:00 the Bismark shelled the Hood and scored a direct hit and the ship exploded. The Prince of Wales severely damaged broke off the attack but had managed to inflict serious damage to the Bismark. The Bismark tried to return to France but was sunk herself on the 27th May.
The two official Admiralty inquiries both concluded that a shell from the Bismark had penetrated her armour and had exploded in the ships magazine causing the ship to sink in less than 3 minutes. Only 3 men survived the sinking and they were picked up 2 hours later by the destroyer HMS Electra.

Remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial panel 52 col 1.