Sub Lieutenant RN John Dickson ARMSTRONG RNVR
HMS Goodall, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

Date of birth: 27th June 1924
Date of death: 29th April 1945

Killed in action aged 20
Commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial Panel 82.1
He was born at West Hartlepool on the 27th of June 1924, the son of Herbert Armstrong, agricultural merchant, and Elizabeth (nee Dickson) of Ainthorpe, Eldon Grove, West Hartlepool, County Durham.

He was educated at West Hartlepool Grammar School, and at the King's School Canterbury from September 1938 to December 1942. He was a King's Scholar, was appointed as a house monitor in May 1941, as Head of School House from September 1941 and served as a Company Sergeant Major in the Officer Training Corps. He was also Assistant Librarian, Chapel Monitor, Editor of the Cantuarian and Hon Secretary of the Labour Committee. He was a keen rugby player playing for the First XV in 1941 and 1942 and was awarded his First XV colours. He passed his School Certificate in 1939 with seven credits and his Higher Certificate in 1942. He matriculated for St John's College Cambridge in 1943, where his tutor was C.W. Guillebaud, but did not complete his degree.

Instead, he joined the Royal Navy and was appointed as a Midshipman in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the 10th of December 1943. He was posted to the 1,150 ton K Class frigate, HMS Goodall (K479).

At 9pm on the 29th of April 1945 the frigate HMS Goodall, under the command of Lieutenant Commander James Vandalle RN, was escorting convoy JW-66 and had just reached the entrance to the Kola Inlet 7 miles from Murmansk in North Western Russia when lookouts spotted the wake of a torpedo heading straight towards them. James Fulton ordered evasive action and the torpedo passed them by. The Gnat torpedo had been fired by the U-Boat U968, under the command of Oberleutnant Otto Westphalen . At around 10pm she was hit by a Gnat torpedo fired by the U-Boat U286, under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Willi Dietrich. The ship's magazine exploded, blowing away the forepart of the vessel. The ship was abandoned but remained afloat and was scuttled by gunfire from the frigate HMS Anguilla (K500) the next day. One hundred and twelve officers and men from a crew of one hundred and fifty six lost their lives in the attack. HMS Goodall was the last Allied warship lost during the European war.

U-286 was sunk later that day by depth charges from the frigates, HMS Anguilla, HMS Loch and HMS Cotton. Dietrich and his fifty five man crew were all drowned.

His Housemaster wrote:-

"Dickson Armstrong was Captain of School House when I first came to it in 1941 and I soon realised the value of his sterling qualities and how much we all owed to his leadership. He united the soundest common sense with a powerful vein of idealism and this together with exceptional powers of organisation largely contributed to the successes which distinguished his long Captaincy of the House. He gave generously of his time and energies and he undertook not only in the House but in the Library, the Chapel, the Cantuarian, the J.T.C. a variety of tasks all of which he did efficiently and seemingly without effort. He was deeply religious in a quiet undemonstrative way and a life of promise and success lay open before him. But unhappily it was not to be and he has been suddenly cut off in his prime. Our sympathy goes out to his parents in their tragic loss. It is a loss which will always be shared by those of us who knew him intimately at School."

He is commemorated on the war memorial at St John's College Cambridge.
School House

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