Able Seaman George W.H. Rooke, R.N.

[Geordie daughter]

I would appreciate some help in unravelling a bit of a mystery: A.B. Rooke died while on active service on 12 February 1944, aged 23, according to various newspaper reports. He is listed on the Commonwealth War Graves site, and his ship was named as H.M.S. Dolphin. On researching further, I found that H.M.S. Dolphin was not a ship at all, but a shore-based submarine depot at Gosport, so now I have the question of how and where he actually came die. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could find out further details? The wording in the newspaper reports and In Memoriam notices suggest that he was killed outright, rather than dying of a disease or injury, and the only thing I can currently think of is that he might have died in a training exercise that went wrong, or maybe a bombing raid. He had been in the Navy for about nine years by this time, so wasn't a raw recruit.

[ShaunJ]

He was serving on HMS Lanka according to the Royal Navy register of deaths

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/60931/images/44994_adm_104_136-0186

[ShaunJ]

This may shed some light: another RN death on the same date, also HMS Lanka, but actually serving on the SS Khedive Ismail when it was sunk by a Japanese submarine:

http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/hms-lanka-or-ss-khedive-ismail.82114/#post-853500

[Geordie daughter]

Thank you so much, Shaun, that's wonderfully helpful! I can't access the Ancestry record, not having a sub to them but the second link provides a great deal of very useful detail.

[ShaunJ]

He's on this casualty list for the Khedive Ismail: http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Ships/SSKhediveIsmail.html

[ShaunJ]

This also lists him as a Khedive Ismail casualty: https://www.naval-history.net/xDKCasAlpha1939-45Ro.htm

[ShaunJ]

And see this: https://www.briancrabbmaritimebooks.co.uk/newpage

[Geordie daughter]

What a dreadful loss of life! I should imagine the papers relating to the Board of Enquiry made "interesting" reading. I wouldn't have wanted to be in the shoes of the person who took the decision to prioritise the destruction of the sub over the rescue of those who survived the sinking of the ship.

[jam19]

Hello
I was searching and came across this post.  My great uncle was AB George Rooke.  He died in WW2 and have read the accounts that have been posted and wandered if this is the same George Rooke.  My Great Uncle was from Barnstaple in Devon  I dont know the year of his birth