The loss of the destroyer HMS HUNTER during the First Battle of Narvik. One of her officers is remembered in Ilminster cemetery, South Somerset.

I have taken many a walk over and around Beacon Hill on the outskirts of Ilminster in South Somerset.  There are views to enjoy toward the Blackdown Hills to the south-west, the Quantock Hills beyond Taunton, and the Mendip Hills to the north.  I sometimes take the footpath alongside the B3168 toward Ilminster which passes the town’s cemetery on the western slopes of Beacon Hill.  Close to the railings which border the cemetery is the grave of members of the Maidlow family, the headstone has a number of memorial inscriptions one of which reads:

 ‘H.R.M. ‘Dick’ / Lt. R.N. / killed at Narvik / 1917-1940’

A little research revealed that this intriguing inscription was in memory of Henry Richard Mundon Maidlow who was killed while serving as a Lieutenant on board the destroyer HMS HUNTER during the First Battle of Narvik.

HMS HUNTER was an ‘H’ class destroyer of 1,340 tons built by Swan Hunter and completed in the autumn of 1936.  She was capable of 35.5 knots and had a main armament of four 4.7in guns and eight 21in torpedo tubes.

Having already been active in the Norwegian Campaign, HUNTER took part in the First Battle of Narvik on 10 April 1940.  The action commenced at 0430hrs.  Opening fire and launching torpedoes, HUNTER and 4 of her sister ships from the Second Flotilla attacked German destroyers and merchant ships in the port of Narvik on the shores of Ofotfjorden.  Six merchant ships were sunk, as were two German destroyers with three further destroyers damaged.  As the British ships withdrew, the remaining German destroyers fought back damaging HMS HARDY so severely she had to be run aground whilst HUNTER was hit by gunfire and then collided with the also damaged HMS HOTSPUR.  HUNTER subsequently sank while HOTSPUR managed to escape with the help of the other two destroyers HMS HAVOCK and HMS HOSTILE.  As the British ships withdrew they came upon the German ammunition supply ship RAUENFELS which was engaged and sunk. 

Of HUNTER'S crew of 145, 107 men were killed, the survivors being rescued from the freezing waters by German destroyers; 5 more men died of wounds later.  Amongst those lost 78 years ago today was Lt. Maidlow.  He is remembered on the Plymouth Naval Memorial and also in Ilminster’s Church of St. Mary, together with 29 others, on a memorial tablet with the words “ILMINSTER ROLL OF HONOUR.  THIS TABLET IS ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THE SONS OF ILMINSTER WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIVES ON ACTIVE SERVICE DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939-1945”.