-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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Robert Alfred Avis

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Date of birth: 15th August 1911
Service: Royal Navy
Rank: Stoker Petty Officer
Service Number: KX80170
Joined Hood First time: 21st February 1936 (Acting Leading Stoker)
Left Hood First time: 17th March 1937 (Leading Stoker)
Joined Hood Second time: 8th May 1937 (Leading Stoker)
Left Hood Second time: 16th March 1941 (Stoker Petty Officer)







Biographical Information: Robert Alfred Avis was born in the naval city of Portsmouth. He joined the Royal Navy in 1929 at the age of 18 as a Stoker Second Class. Older than the average recruit, Robert had already spent time in civilian employment as a labourer.

Following training, he had sea drafts (alternating with time in naval barracks) in the cruiser HMS Effingham, the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous and the elderly battleship HMS Iron Duke, by then reduced to a role as a gunnery training ship.

Robert served in HMS Hood for nearly five years. He joined her in February 1936 and, with a short two-month break in HMS Cormorant, served in her right through until March 1941, being advanced twice while on board: to Leading Stoker in June 1936 and to Stoker Petty Officer in November 1940. Robert was drafted off Hood just two months before her loss, but his brother-in-law, Lesley Frank Shipp, lost his life in Hood's sinking.

Robert Avis was discharged to pension in 1951. After his time in uniform he maintained his links with the Royal Navy, being employed in Portsmouth dockyard until retirement. He and his wife, Beatrice, had four children and lived in Portchester, close by his home city of Portsmouth.

All his life, Robert proudly remembered his time in Hood, and retained the framed photo of Hood, below, as a memento.



Additional Photos



Robert Avis' personal framed photograph of Hood, in Golfe Juan on 25th April 1938.



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)
Photos and information from Mark Avis, grandson, April 2021.