Able Seaman C/JX 168689 Thomas YATES.
Royal Navy H.M.S. Dasher (D37).
27 Mar 1943 aged 24.
Chatham Naval Memorial, 70, 1.
Son of Thomas and Mary Ann Yates, of Adswood, Cheshire.
Husband of Elsie Yates.
On 27 Mar 1943, H.M.S. Dasher (Capt. Lennox Albert Knox Boswell, DSO) was in the Firth of Clyde with one of her Swordfish planes practicing take-offs and landings. Suddenly a violent internal explosion occurred, sending her aircraft lift 60 feet in the air. H.M.S. Dasher went to the bottom in only 5 minutes, stern first in. Aviation fuel and fuel oil from the ship caught fire and spread across the water to the survivors. In total 379 men drowned and 149 men were picked up by rescue vessels.
H.M.S. Dasher (photo from The Scotsman)
