|
|
| Surgeon Lieutenant Myles Clayton CROSS RNVR | |
|
HMS Clacton, Royal Navy Date of birth: 26th November 1917 Date of death: 31st December 1943 Killed in action aged 26 Commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial Panel 73 Column 3 |
|
| Myles Clayton Cross was born at Ash in Hampshire on the 26th of November 1917 the younger son of William Mark Cross, a civil engineer with the Ministry of Health, and Cicely Mary (nee Thorne) Cross of "Gaisgill", Elstree in Hertfordshire. He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Gibbs House from September 1931 to July 1935. He gained his School Certificate in July 1933 and 1st MB in 1935. He served as a Corporal in the Officers Training Corps and achieved Certificate A in 1934. He was admitted as a pensioner at Trinity College Cambridge on the 1st of October 1935, achieving BCh. (Cantab) in 1938. He went on to Guy's Hospital the same year and qualified as MRCS and LRCP in 1941. He completed his MB BCh in 1942 following which he held house appointments at Guy’s and was a member of the Emergency Medical Service. He was commissioned as a Surgeon Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the 4th of September 1942 and took part in the North African landings as well as seeing service at Pantellaria, Sicily, and at Salerno. On the 31st of December 1943 the minesweeper HMS Clacton (J151) was engaged in minesweeping duties off the east coast of Corsica when a mine, which had collected in her sweep wire, exploded on the quarterdeck at 8.32am. Three officers and twenty nine ratings were killed when she sank with forty three survivors being rescued by the minesweeper HMS Polruan. His father received the following telegram: - "From Admiralty. Deeply regret to inform you that your son Surgeon Lieutenant M.C. Cross RNVR has been reported missing presumed killed on active service." He is commemorated on the war memorial in the chapel at Trinity College Cambridge and on the memorial at Guy’s Hospital. |
|
| Gibbs House |
Back