-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.

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John Ernest Bailey

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Date of birth: 29 December 1892
Place of birth: Blackpool, Lancashire, England
Previous occupation: Grocer's Assistant
Service: Royal Navy
Rank: Stoker Petty Officer
Service Number: K22971
Joined Hood: 1st September 1921
Left Hood: 14th May 1923







Biographical Information: John Ernest Bailey hailed from Blackpool, Lancashire, and joined the Royal Navy at Devonport. Initially he joined on a short service engagement, and when he transferred to a longer engagement he was allocated a new service number, beginning with the letter ‘K’, which denoted a career member of the engineering branch.

John was drafted, as a Stoker Petty Officer, to the new battlecruiser HMS Hood in 1921, and shortly after, in 1922, he ‘signed on’ to complete a pensionable engagement.

John Bailey spent a large amount of his seagoing time in big ships. Early in career, from 1912 until 1918, he served in the battlecruiser HMS New Zealand. In her, he participated in a 1913 tour of the dominions, including New Zealand. Since he remained in her almost right through World War I, he would also have been present at three major sea engagements of that war: Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank – and Jutland, the largest sea battle of all time. He clearly had a very busy war. Subsequent to his Hood time, he served in the battleship HMS Malaya, and the heavy cruisers HMS Berwick and HMS Devonshire.

In 1929, John Bailey was selected for promotion to Chief Stoker, and as such he eventually left the Royal Navy in 1933, on pensionable terms.


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)