Able Seaman D/SSX 31906 Walter Howard

Family details:
Son of Walter and Mabel Annie Howard, of St. Helens, Lancashire.

Census details:
1939 Register. Unfortunately there is one member of the household redacted which is probably Walter. Father Walter Howard born 27/06/1888 a Glass Bottle Hand (Heavy Worker) and mother Mabel A Howard born 18/09/1890 an Unpaid Domestic are living at 134 Knowsley Road, St Helens.

HMS [i]Hesperus[/i] (H57) [b]HMS [i]Hesperus[/i][/b] was an H- Class destroyer had originally been ordered by the Brazilian Navy the name [i]Juruena[/i] in the late 1930s, but was bought by the Royal Navy after the beginning of World War 2. Hesperus had an eventful war career. In 1940 she participated in the battle of Norway . In August 1941, [i]Hesperus[/i] was one of the destroyers that escorted the battleship Prince of Wales, carrying Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Atlantic Charter Meeting with President Roosevelt at Placentia Bay. Together with her sister Harvester, [i]Hesperus[/i] sank the German Submarine U-208 on 7 December 1941 in the Atlantic west of Gibraltar. On 15 January 1942, whilst defending Convoy HG 78, the ship's radar detected U-93 on the surface and the Captain, Lieutenant Commander A. A. Tait, ordered [i]Hesperus[/i] to ram. Although a glancing hit, the collision was so violent that it flung the U-boat's captain and first lieutenant from the submarine's conning tower into the motorboat stowed on the destroyer's deck. By dropping depth charges at their shallowest setting and hitting the submarine multiple times with 4.7-inch shells, the submarine's crew was persuaded to abandon ship. [i]Hesperus[/i] rescued 40 of the submarine's crew, but was unable to board the submarine before it sank Able Seaman Walter Howard was lost overboard from HMS Hesperus on the 1st of December 1942 and was officially listed as 'missing presumed killed'. [pic]http://forum.valka.cz/attachments/11395/Hesperus_1.jpg[/pic] [caption](HMS Hesperus) (Researched by Jeff Keenan)[/caption]