Captain David G Roome

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Served in the Royal Navy during World War Two as a Midshipman. He served in HMS Repulse for one month from January to February 1941. He was due to join the newly built HMS Prince of Wales but building had been delayed by a German bomb.
He did eventually join HMS Prince of Wales in February 1941 in Rosyth on his 18th birthday. As a brand new ship it was fully commissioned in March 1941 and went up to Scapa Flow to carry out full trials and work-ups, scheduled to take some 4 to 6 months. However, in May they were called to join flagship HMS Hood to try and intercept the German battleships Bismarck. This was achieved off Iceland and the brief 0 minute battle HMS Hood was sunk. The Prince of Wales was hit some 8 times including by the German cruiser Prinz Eugen. The Prince of Wales hit the Bismarck four times, which caused her to have to reduce speed and enabled the other British ships elsewhere to catch her eventually. With lack of fuel and repairs needed they returned to Rosyth dockyard for a month.

In September 1941 they were called away to escort a troop and food convoy to relieve Malta. They came near to engaging an Italian battle fleet but they turned and went away.

In October 1941 they were despatched to Singapore where they joined HMS Repulse just as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was made. Both ships were put to sea on 7th December to intercept a Japanese landing being made in Northern Malaya but were detected and having no air cover, had to turn back. On 10th December they were found by Japanese high level bombers and torpedo bombers and both ships were sunk. Next day in Singapore, he joined HMS Exeter and was again sunk within 3 months at the Battle of the Java Sea. He spent 3 and a half years as a Japanese prisoner, eventually returning home in November 1945. He returned to the Royal Navy and served aboard HMS Vengeance and as First Lieutenant aboard HMS Chevron. He then took command of the destroyer HMS Loch Lomond, became second in command of the Royal Yacht Britannia in 1960 and then commanded HMS Euryalus. He retired in 1972 with the rank of Captain.

This profile comes from a source written in 2007 - the same source as the signature itself. We can find no further information on this person, but he would have been around 86 when he signed this particular source.

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