Unusual Burial

[Jack Ray]

Survivor of U-boat attack is laid to rest in sunken battleship in which 800 of his comrades died
By Daily Mail Reporter

15th October 2008


A war veteran who survived a terrifying U-boat attack that killed more than 800 has had his dying wish granted as his ashes were laid to rest in the sunken ship.

Royal Navy divers placed the wooden casket containing the remains of Flight Sergeant Fernleigh Judge in the hull of HMS Royal Oak, which lies 90ft beneath the waves of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.

The 29,000-tonne dreadnought went down after being struck by a salvo of torpedoes which scored three perfect hits on the night of October 14, 1939.

It was the first battleship to be lost in the Second World War.

A German U-boat under the command of Gunther Prien had managed to penetrate Scapa Flow, evading the defensive 'block ships' that had been sunk to prevent submarines entering the body of water.

Three torpedoes from the U47 struck Royal Oak, which exploded, rolled over and sank within 13 minutes.

In all, 833 of the crew died immediately or succumbed later to their injuries. Just 375 men survived.

Mr Judge, then just 19, managed to scramble overboard along with 100 other survivors before being rescued.

The veteran, of Peterborough, Cambs, had been desperate to return to the islands to pay final tribute to his fallen comrades when he died from thrombosis aged 88 in May.

Friend and neighbour Patrick Lyons arranged for him to be laid to rest with his ship.

The former school caretaker, 74, who had known Mr Judge for more than 10 years, said: 'The Royal Oak was pretty much all Fernleigh spoke of for all the time I knew him.

'He was haunted by memories of what happened and desperately saddened by the death of so many crewmates.

'He was too poorly to go back in person, so a burial at sea was his only option.'

Mr Judge had no living relatives in the UK after his wife Madge died in 2002, aged 81. His two sons and one daughter live abroad.

Fellow survivor Kenneth Toop, secretary of the Royal Oak Survivors' Association, carried his ashes to Orkney.

Mr Toop, 85, said: 'I was contacted by Fernleigh's neighbour who asked me to make the burial happen.

'I was honoured to fulfil his wishes. I go to all the comrade's funerals if I can - it's an honour. I can do nothing else for them now but support the relatives.'

Mr Toop joined the crew of the Royal Oak aged 15 just six weeks before she was sunk in the early hours of the morning.

He managed to scramble out of the ship and slide down the side into the freezing water of the harbour.

Mr Toop said: 'It was pitch black and there was oil everywhere - we were covered in it, just like you see birds when there's an oil spill now.

'I've no idea how long I was in the water - you have no idea of time when you're in shock.'

The survivors spent the night aboard HMS Pegasus, anchored nearby.

Mr Toop added: 'It was then the truth sank in - how many of my colleagues had just gone forever.'


Mr Toop and fellow survivor Norman Thackeray, 88, laid wreathes on the waters of Scapa Flow.

Mr Thackeray, from Stokesay Castle, Shropshire, was serving as a 19-year-old Royal Marine and vividly remembers the sound of explosions and the lights going out inside the ship.

'I was thrown into a place where hammocks were stored during the day,' he said.

'I was lucky because I was just out of the way of one of the gangways leading to the deck.

'One of the explosions created a flash of cordite which went straight down the gangway and anyone in the way was burnt to pieces.

'I saw it flashing past me, as if it was alive.'

He managed to find his way to an open porthole and, like Mr Toop, ended up in the freezing sea where he clung to a floating log until rescue arrived.

Mr Judge served out his time on the HMS Devonshire, a battle cruiser. He remained in the Royal Marines after the war as a bandmaster.

A team of Royal Navy divers from nearby Faslane submarine base took the casket containing his ashes down to the wreck on Monday as part of their annual dive to replace the ship's ensign.

Able Seaman Billy Miller then placed the box, wrapped in a small white ensign, through one of the portholes.

In a memorial service yesterday on a boat above the wreck, 58 survivors, relatives and friends said prayers and a lone piper played a lament.

The 580ft ship was one of five Royal Sovereign class battleships constructed for the Navy between 1913 and 1917.

Manned by just under one thousand crew, it had its First World War debut at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

[Elvis965]

They replace the ensign every year? Is Royal Oak still in commission?

Bob

[MichelB]

This is Beautiful.

[ASFC]

They replace the ensign every year? Is Royal Oak still in commission?

Bob

No. They replace the ensign on many sunk RN warships-the Type 21s in the Falklands come to mind.

[David Griffith]

Yes, utterly, utterly the right thing to do. I'm so glad they let him do it.

David Griffith

[Lesforan]

A great story, very touching.

By the way, I saw on the news yesterday where the last suvivor of the Titanic disaster is selling her personal effects to pay her nursing home bill.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Judge.