-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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Martin Luther Martin

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Date of birth: 24th December 1893
Place of birth: Sudbury, Suffolk, England
Previous occupation: Footman
Service: Royal Navy
Rank: Stoker Petty Officer
Service Number: K.14083
Joined Hood First time: 24th February 1920 (HMS Crescent - a tender to Hood) (Stoker Petty Officer)
Left Hood First time: 31st March 1920 (Stoker Petty Officer)
Joined Hood Second time: 1st April 1920 (Stoker Petty Officer)
Left Hood Second time: 26th July 1921 (Stoker Petty Officer)





Biographical Information: Martin Luther Martin enlisted into the Royal Navy, on a 12-year engagement in the Stoker Branch, on 4th March 1912. At eighteen years of age, he was much older than most RN new entrants, having had a career in service as a footman prior to his enlistment. The 1911 Census records Martin employed as a Footman to Henry Bainbridge Browning, 9 Cadogan Square, Chelsea - Henry Browning was a member of a family firm which had imported Hennessy Cognac to the United Kingdom since 1840.

A native of Suffolk, Martin Joined the RN at HMS Pembroke, in Chatham, Kent, in 1912, and he spent almost all of his Royal Navy career with Chatham as his home port. He saw action in World War I in the pre-Dreadnought HMS Canopus, which fired the opening shots of the Battle of the Falkland Islands and also participated at Gallipoli. In his last two drafts - to HMS Crescent (an ancient cruiser about to pay off and so a tender to Hood) and to HMS Hood herself, his base port changed from Chatham to Devonport.

On leaving Hood, Martin was discharged from the Royal Navy (in category 'Discharge Shore') some three years before his engagement was due to end. The reason for this premature end to his naval career is not known, but may have had a compassionate or administrative cause - 'Discharge Shore' is not a dishonourable discharge category.

Martin died in the third quarter of 1962, in Samford in his native Suffolk.


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)
Mr Roger Mennie, information June 2023.