Frank Charles Thomas

Date of birth: 31st December 1901
Place of birth: Winsor Copythorne, New Forest, Hampshire, Hampshire
Previous occupation: Coast watcher
Service: Royal Navy
Rank: Chief Yeoman of Signals
Service Number: J89902
Joined Hood: 20th September 1936
Left Hood: 15th April 1941







Biographical Information: Frank Charles Thomas joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class on 10 June 1918, some five months before the end of World War I but too late to play an active part in it as a member of the Royal Navy. But even before enlisting, he had “done his bit” as a Coast Watcher, keeping lookout at Clavell Tower, Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset. Frank was selected for the Signalling Branch just six months after joining the RN – he became a Boy Signalman and, in a five-year period in the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth until 1924, was advanced first to Ordinary Signalman and then to Able Signalman, By the time he came to serve in Hood some 12 years later, he was a Yeoman of Signals (Petty Officer rate) and while in Hood he was promoted to Chief Yeoman. He was still serving in Hood in April 1941 when he was granted compassionate leave and left the ship just over a month before her sinking. His subsequent drafts – which included extra wartime service after he reached pensionable age – culminated in a draft to the Signals Branch alma mater HMS Mercury, north of Portsmouth, from which he was finally discharged from the RN in October 1945. His subsequent civilian employment was also based in HMS Mercury, however, and he finally retired at the age of 65. Frank passed away in Portsmouth on 30th May 1974.

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