-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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Herbert Marshall Pryde

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Date of birth: 22nd June 1906
Place of birth: Kingston, Surrey, England
Previous occupation: Messenger
Service: Royal Navy
Rank: Acting Petty Officer
Service Number: J103824
Joined Hood: 31st August 1933 (Acting Leading Seaman)
Left Hood: 3rd May 1935 (Acting Petty Officer)







Biographical Information: Herbert Marshall Pryde was born in Kingston. That much is clear, but what is less clear is which Kingston! The Royal Navy cites his birthplace as Kingston, Surrey, but family information suggests that this is incorrect, and that he was born in Kingston, Jamaica. Herbert joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Second Class on 2nd September 1921, at the age of fifteen.

He became a career sailor, advancing steadily through the rates until, by 1933 when he joined HMS Hood, he was an Acting Leading Seaman. He was advanced twice more during the 21 months he spent in Hood: first he was confirmed in the Leading Seaman rate and then, on 1st May 1935, he was advanced to Acting Petty Officer.

Around ten months after that he was transferred from the Seaman branch to the Regulating branch (Royal Navy police) a branch which recruits exclusively by transfer from other branches, not by direct entry. Herbert's career success continued in his new branch: he was selected for promotion to Master at Arms (Chief Petty Officer rate) and as such would have been the senior discipline rating in the cruiser HMS Manchester, in which he served from 1938 to 1941.

Herbert was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) by the King on 10 Nov 1942 at Buckingham Palace. Whilst the grounds for this prestigious award are not known for certain, it is more than likely that they relate to his conduct, earlier that year, during the heavy and damaging attacks on his ship, the aircraft carrier Indomitable, during the Operation Pedestal convoy to Malta.

Herbert went on to remain in the Royal Navy until the 1950s, and in May 1955 he achieved the rare distinction of being promoted to Lieutenant at Arms - a commissioned rank and the very top of the Regulating branch 'tree'. At the time, there were just four officers of that rank in the Royal Navy.

Herbert never married. He retired to Portchester, near Portsmouth in Hampshire, and he passed away there in 1983, at the age of 77.


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 Record: ADM/363/446(Ancestry)
Mr Guy Harrup, great nephew, of Australia, information April 2023.