HMS Hood annual Service of Remembrance attended by relatives from New Zealand of one lost crew member

RELATIVES of a navigation officer aboard the batlle-cruiser HMS Hood when it was sunk in 1941 travelled from New Zealand to attend a New Forest memorial service held in honour of the 1,414 servicemen killed.

Commander Selwyn Warrand died along with his crew when the ship was sunk by the notorious German battleship the Bismarck on May 24th, 1941. Only three crew survived.

The commanding officer of HMS Hood, Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland, worshipped at St John’s Church in Boldre. After the war, his widow established a memorial to him and the other servicemen at St John’s.

An annual service of remembrance has been held there since 1949.

Jack Warrand, the son of Selwyn Warrand, attended the service along with New Forest East MP Sir Julian Lewis, Lymington mayor Cllr Jack Davies, Boldre parish Cllr Pamela Keen and Commodore Catherine Jordan, who led a 98-strong contingent from HMS Collingwood.

They watched as a lone City of London sea cadet carrying the Book of Remembrance led five standards at the start of the service.

James led the Act of Remembrance this year – taking the role of Admiral Philip Wilcocks, the former president of the Hood Association who died at Easter.

The Rev Canon Andrew Neaum took the service.

Philip’s son Andrew presented the City of London’s top sea cadet with the Hood Association’s first ever Philip Wilcocks memorial plate.

The Very Reverend David Conroy, KHC, Royal Navy spoke during the service of the significance of the ship's bell recovered from the wreck in 2015 with remembrance and its importance in the context of current conflicts.

A moving part of the day’s events was when the Book of Remembrance was returned to its glass case escorted by standards from the Royal Naval Association, the Hood Association, the City of London Sea Cadets and two from the Royal British Legion.

Bugler Jonathan Lush Camps played the Last Post and Reveille while the choir song ‘Crossing the Bar’.

Piers Cross – grandson of HMS Hood’s Captain Tim Davey – who is the Commanding Officer of HMS Collingwood, the Royal Navy's largest training establishment, gave two readings.

Sway resident, Titch Blatchford, great niece of Commander Davey, laid a wreath while Captain Mark Hamilton from Pilley read the Naval Prayer.