History & Learning

Information and photo provided by Gillian Hazell (daughter)

Gordon Herbert Humphrey
22/12/1921-20/04/2020

Dad joined the Royal Marine Band Service in 1936 as a bandboy, he played the cello, violin, viola, clarinet & saxaphone. After sailing with HMS Glasgow on the Royal visit of Canada and North America in 1939, he joined HMS Edinburgh. Whilst serving on the Edinburgh he took part in the early Norway convoys, the Malta convoys, Operation Claymore and the Arctic convoys. He was aboard HMS Edinburgh when it was torpedoed and sunk in May 1942 near the Kola Inlet. After being rescued he was detained in Russia until a passage home could be secured – this was a terrible experience for him and all of the crew. On board ship he worked as a plotter in the gunnery room. In 1943 he was medically discharged from the Royal Marine Band due to injuries sustained on the sinking ship, contracting TB and the terrible conditions in Russia.
In the 1980’s there was a lot of publicity about the wreck of HMS Edinburgh as when it sunk it was carrying a large amount of gold which was payment from Russia to the USA for supplies made to Russia. In the ’80’s a crew found the wreck and recovered most of the gold. It was said that the crew didn’t know they were carrying the gold but they most certainly did!
Thank you for including this on your Web site, these brave men need to be remembered.

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