Royal Marine bandsman Fernleigh Judge was aboard the battleship in October 1939 when, while anchored in the Flow, she was torpedoed by the German submarine U-47. He was one of 401 survivors, but 833 other crew perished as the ship went down.
Judge, who lived near Peterborough, died in March at the age of 88. The Navy elected to carry out the operation after learning of his desire to have his ashes scattered in the area, backed by the revelation from his only surviving relative, a daughter in Australia, that he had wanted to visit the Orkneys to pay tribute to his lost shipmates, but could not afford the trip.
A fellow survivor, Kenneth Toop, accompanied the navy team which went out to the wreck on 13 October and placed a weighted urn containing Judge's ashes within the ship, one of the tranch of vessels protected as war graves under the Protection of Military Remains Act.
'Every year on the anniversary of the sinking, we dive down to check over the wreck,' Andy Ward, the diving team's commanding officer, told Peterborough Today. 'We held a small ceremony for Mr Judge before the two divers put his ashes 20m deep inside one of the port holes.'
Ward added: 'He hoped that his ashes would be scattered at Scapa Flow, but as the divers were already going down to the wreck, we thought it would be nice to fulfil his final wish as best we could.'
The day after the placement, HMS Royal Oak's annual remembrance service, organised with the ship's survivors association, was held to mark the 69th anniversary of the vessel's sinking.
The ship was the first of five RN battleships and battle cruisers to be sunk during WWII.
Wreck website - www.hmsroyaloak.co.uk |
