CROSS William Kenneth Ramsden

Appears on the Royal Navy casualties list for Worcestershire.

Joined HMS Hood 1710 hours, 16th September 1940.
William was the eldest son of Mr and Mrs Thomas Cross of Insetton House, Belbroughton. He entered Osborne as a cadet in May 1917 and he joined HMS Repulse as a Midshipman in 1921. He was posted to HMS Centurion the following year and then promoted to Lieutenant in 1924. He served for a time in HMS Malaya and later moved to H.M. submarines.
William married Janet Curtis on 23 July 1927. Together, they had a son, Giles, and a daughter, Henrietta. The couple were divorced in 1936. He commanded submarines H28 and H30 during 1933. He became the staff operations officer for the Home Fleet’s 2nd Submarine Flotilla. William moved on to command submarines L26 and L53, he was promoted to Commander in 1937. The following year he was assigned to the Operations Division of the Admiralty. He remarried in November 1938. William was affectionately known as “Tubby” to his close friends.

Source for additional information and a photograph of William Cross from:   http://www.hmshood.com/crew/memorial/c/CrossWKR.htm

On 22nd May 1941 HMS Hood left Scapa Flow along with her sister battlecruiser Prince of Wales and a number of destroyers. Their mission was to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen before they could enter the Atlantic waters and attack Allied shipping. The two ships were sighted in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland. At 05.52 on the morning of 24th May 1941 the British ships opened fire on the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. The German ships returned fire and within less than 10 minutes the battle was over. HMS Hood was hit by a number of shells, one of which triggered a massive explosion and led to the ship sinking in less than 4 minutes. Of her crew of 1,418, only 3 survived.

Commander W.K.R. Cross of Inselton, Belbroughton appears on a list of men from the Bromsgrove District killed in the 1939 – 1945 war, provided by the Reverend C.W. Banner, “Tuffley”, 19 Stourbridge Road, Bromsgrove, dated 29th June 1950. The letter was in response to a countywide appeal for the names of casualties to be added to the County Roll of Honour.

Kenneth Cross has no known grave, the photograph available shows his name on Portsmouth Naval Memorial.