REGINALD ARTHUR POWLING
Photographs courtesy of Gerald Main
Born: 24th June 1900, Hadleigh, Suffolk.
Died: 26th March 1942; age: 41; Killed – bombing.
Enlistment Details: Location: Chatham; Occupation: Farm Labourer. Signed up for 12 years – 25th June 1918. Height: 5ft 6 1/2ins, dark complexion, blue eyes & dark brown hair.
Rank: Stoker First Class; Service Number: C/K 52210.
Regiment: Royal Navy, H.M.S. ‘Legion’
Medals Awarded: 1933 – Long Service & Good Conduct Medal. Distinguished Service Medal – for bravery whilst serving on H.M.S. ‘Sabre’ during the evacuations of Dunkirk.
Memorial Reference:
62.2.
Chatham,
Kent.
Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Frederick & Mary Mower Powling; husband of Janet Elizabeth Michie Powling, of Edinburgh.
CENSUS
1911 Hadleigh Road, Hintlesham, Suffolk.
Reginald was 10 years old and living with his parents & siblings.
Frederick George Powling, 35, a farm Labourer, born Shotley, Suffolk.
Mary Powling (nee Mower), 31, born Hintlesham, Suffolk.
Norah Axelina J. Powling, 5, born Combs, Suffolk.
Hilda Alice Powling, 3, born Hintlesham.
Herbert Leslie G. Powling, 1, born Hintlesham.
Reginald’s father, Frederick George Powling died 1941, of Orchard Lea, Chattisham, Suffolk. His mother, Mary Powling died September 1943, of Orchard Lea, Chattisham, Suffolk.
Reginald married Janet Elizabeth Michie, born June 1904.
Reginald is also remembered on the war memorial at Chattisham, Suffolk.
26th March 1942 H.M.S. ‘Legion’
H.M.S. ‘Legion’ was a British L-class Destroyer, built by Hawthorn Leslie & Co. Ltd, Hebburn -on-Tyne, Newcastle. Launched 26th December 1939. Commissioned 19th December 1940. Commander Richard Frederick Jessel R.N. On the 23rd March 1942, H.M.S. ‘Legion’ was damaged by an air attack. With one engine she was beached at Malta. On the 25th March she was towed to Valletta Harbour at French Creek. Whilst awaiting repairs, the docks were the target of a German air raid. H.M.S. ‘Legion’ received a direct hit by two bombs causing her forward magazine to explode. She sank in the harbour. She was later re-floated into deeper water and scuttled outside the Grand Harbour.
Photographs courtesy of Gerald Main – http://www.hintleshamwarmemorial.com/chattisham-fallen.html
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