John Alfred Shrubsole RN
B 17 Oct 1900 Folkestone, Kent, England
d 17 Nov 1917 Lost at Sea (HMS Calypso)
British War Medal. Victory Medal.
John was a Boy 1st class in the Royal Navy. He was on board HMS Calypso when she was torpedoed on 17 Nov 1917 & he was buried at sea. He is commemorated at Chatham Naval Memorial.
HMS Calypso was built by Hawthorn Leslie and launched 24th January 1917 and completed June 1917. HMS Calypso joined the 6th Light cruiser squadron in June 1917, and on the 17th November 1917 (when John was killed), took part in the Heligoland Bight engagement.
The Second Battle of Heligoland Bight was a naval engagement during the First World War. On 17 November 1917 German minesweepers clearing a path through the British minefield in the Heligoland Bight near the coast of Germany were intercepted by three British light cruisers, HMS Calypso, Caledon & HMS Galatea performing counter-minesweeping duties. The German ships fled south toward the protection of the battleships SMS Kaiser and Kaiserin, commanded by Real Admiral Ludwig von Reuter. The three cruisers engaged the German battleships, while their own screening force of the battle cruisers HMS Tiger, Renown, Repulse, Courageous and Glorious were coming up to assist. All personnel on the bridge of Calypso, including her captain, were killed by a 12 in (305mm) shell. Repulse, under Captain William Boyle, briefly engaged the German battleships, but the Germans made it back to the safety of their own minefields with the loss of only one minesweeper.
{During World war two HMS calypso served in the Home Fleet 1939 and Mediterranean fleet 1940; she was torpedoed and sunk on the 12th June 1940 by the Italian Submarine Bagnlini, south of Crete.}
