-H.M.S. Hood Crew Information-
H.M.S. Crew List

It is estimated that as many as 18,000 men served aboard the 'Mighty Hood' during the operational portion of her 21 year career. Unfortunately, there is no surviving official single listing of ALL men who served in her. Here you will find our attempt at creating such a listing. We are using the few, fragmentary crew lists known to exist, Navy Lists, various official reports, public records, and most importantly of all, inputs from the families of former crew.

Chainbar divider


Robert James Holt

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Date of birth: 25th October 1900
Place of birth: Shoreham-by-Sea, Sussex, England
Previous occupation: Schoolboy
Service: Royal Marines Band Service
Rank: Bandmaster 1st Class
Service Number: 2316
Joined Hood: 27th January 1938
Left Hood: 3rd May 1939







Biographical Information: Robert Holt joined the Royal Marines Band Service on 26 February 1915, at the age of just fourteen years four months. He was just 4 feet 8 inches tall at the time! During World War 1 he served afloat in the battlecruiser HMS Inflexible. His time in Hood came during her penultimate commission: he served onboard for well over a year, and had by then reached the senior RMBS rank of Bandmaster First Class. Hood was Robert's last seagoing time: although he continued to serve in the RMBS until August 1944, near the end of World War 2, all of his appointments in this war were shore-based. When he left the RM he joined ENSA - family members remember travelling around the country as he conducted various concerts. Robert later qualified as a male nurse after much studying. Family members report that he said almost nothing about his RMBS time, until very late in his life, when he gave his son this photo, taken of Robert as a 14-year-old Band Boy.


Additional Photographs
None at this time.




Memorials
No known memorials



Sources
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
'Register of Deaths of Naval Ratings' (data extracted by Director of Naval Personnel (Disclosure Cell), Navy Command HQ, 2009)
Service certificate. Original information from Major Tonie Holt, his child.