Harry Redvers Gribben

Date of birth: 4th November 1900
Place of birth: St. Agnes, Cornwall, England
Previous occupation: Blacksmith's Assistant
Service: Royal Navy
Rank: Able Seaman
Service Number: J54838
Joined Hood: 24th November 1923 (Able Seaman)
Left Hood: 6th January 1926 (Able Seaman)







Biographical Information: Harry Gribben's 'man's time' - an engagement of twelve years - began on his eighteenth birthday in 1918. As a native of Cornwall, Gribben was, unsurprisingly, a Devonport-based rating - and Hood was home-ported in Devonport at that stage of her career. Gribben joined Hood just three days before her departure on the ten-month 'Empire Cruise' of 1923-4. It is known that a number of ratings with a poor disciplinary record were drafted out of Hood before this prestigious and high-profile trip, and Harry (whose record was impeccable) may have been one of those drafted in to replace them. Harry left the Navy at the end of his engagement in 1930, but re-joined into the Royal Fleet Reserve in 1937, being mobilized in 1938.  He spent his second term in small ships, ending up being sunk whilst serving in HMS Broke at Alexandria.  He survived that, and the remainder of the war. He moved to Australia in 1958, but returned to the UK after a year or two. He died in his native Cornwall in around 1983-4.

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