-H.M.S. Hood Crew Information-
H.M.S. Hood Rolls of Honour
Memorials to Men Lost in the sinking

We will remember them
Chainbar divider

In Remembrance of
George McCart

Photo of
Date of birth: 25th April 1920
Place of birth: Morecambe, Lancashire, England
Parents: James and Dorothy McCart
Service: Royal Navy
Rank: Telegraphist
Service Number: P/SSX 24519
Joined Hood: May 1940
Left Hood: 24th May 1941 (loss of ship) (Telegraphist)
Click here to print memorial poster





Biographical Information:

George was born on 25th April 1920, and he was the eldest of three sons of James and Dorothy McCart of Morecambe, Lancashire. As a boy he attended West End School, Morecambe, and after leaving he worked in the tow, first as an errand boy for Crossley's fruit and vegetable merchants and later as a bricklayer for local building firms. He was a keen sportsman, and he was known in Morecambe for his powerful swimming and high-diving ability. His athletic prowess covered even wider fields, for he was also a keen amateur boxer and, whilst undergoing his naval training, he won the H.M.S. Victory Cross Country Medal for running.

In the autumn of 1937, at seventeen and a half years of age, he realised his childhood ambition and joined the Royal Navy as a Telegraphist, undergoing his basic training at H.M.S. Victory, Portsmouth (Royal Naval Barracks, Queen Street). On completion of his training his first ship was the light cruiser H.M.S. Dunedin, and from there he was drafted to the battlecruiser Renown. He was in Renown during the spring of 1940 when she was involved in the action with Scharnhorst in the North Sea.

George was drafted to Hood in May 1940, and in March 1941 he passed his examination for Leading Telegrapaphist. In the spring of 1941, during his last leave in Morecambe, he became engaged to Miss Betty Darby and, circumstances permitting, they were to have been married later that year. George celebrated his 21st birthday just over a month before he lost his life.





Additional Photos



George (back row, centre) and mates from H.M.S. Victory, Portsmouth late 1937/early 1938




George aboard Hood in the Summer of 1940






Hood Chapel, Church of St. John the Baptist, Boldre, Hampshire, England

Photos of the memorial











Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Southsea, Hampshire, England

Photos of the memorial



The part of the memorial in which the Hood casualty names can be found.
(Panels 45 to 61)





George's name is in Column 3 of Panel 52.





Detail of George's name.






Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
'Register of Deaths of Naval Ratings' (data extracted by Director of Naval Personnel (Disclosure Cell), Navy Command HQ, 2009)
George's brother Ernest McCart, and nephew Neil McCart (biography text & photos, April 2004)
"Morecambe & Heysham Visitor" (newspaper), 28 May 1941, via Ernest McCart (information, April 2004)