Surname:	Langley
Forename(s):	John Robert
Rank:	Sub-Lieutenant RNVR
Service number:	599145
Regiment:	HMS Dasher
Date of death:	27 March 1943 Aged 24
Place of death:	Firth of Clyde – off Isle of Bute
Buried Commemorated	At sea – Firth of Clyde, off Isle of Bute Kingussie War Memorial and Chatham Naval Memorial

Background

John was born on 30 April 1918 in Alverstoke, Hampshire. His parents were John Basil Robert Langley R.A.F., and Lorna Leslie Langley (m.s. Lodge) who married on 28 July 1917 at Kings Norton, Worcestershire.

His father was a lieutenant in the RAF and had also served with 19th Alberta Dragoons (Canadian Contingent) in France.  John Basil died, on active service, on 15 May 1918 in Gosport shortly after John Robert was born.

John Robert was baptised on 28 July 1918 at North Wraxall, Wiltshire. The baptism record shows his father to be deceased and John Langley, the Rector, baptised him.

The 1939 England and Wales Register shows John living with his mother and future stepfather at Amesbury, Wiltshire. John is described as a Cambridge Science graduate a note beside his name states “Called up by Cambridge …… Recruitment Board O.T.C. Cen…”

John married Susan Katherine Job in the autumn of 1942 in Surrey. She was the daughter of Rev. C.D.Job the vicar at Walton-on-Thames. Susan was living at Amesbury, Wiltshire at the time of his death.

John’s mother remarried in 1940, in St Austell, to John Baptist Kramer who was born in Bavaria. In 1945 John’s mother and John Kramer were living at Cawdor House, Newtonmore Road, Kingussie and in July 1945 they purchased the Woollen Mill, Kingussie (recently known as The Cross) from Christina Grant and Mrs Sarah Grant or Fraser. John Kramer died in Kingussie 28 July 1952 (aged 77 years). He was an inventor and pioneer of magnetism as an industrial tool.

War Record

John was lost at sea on 27 March 1943 while on board Aircraft Carrier HMS Dasher. The ship sank in just eight minutes as the result of a petrol fire and explosion. Of the crew of 528 a total of 379 died.

Of the 379 who perished it is said that only 23 were given an official burial. Many more bodies, it is locally reported, were either brought ashore or washed up on local beaches and possibly burned beyond recognition and lie in unmarked plots. On the 80th anniversary of the sinking of the ship reporters and families stated that no acknowledgement had been made of the number or the whereabouts of these unmarked graves

John has no known burial place.  He is remembered on Chatham Naval Memorial, Kent.
https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/142000/chatham-naval-memorial/

HMS Dasher was an aircraft carrier converted from a merchant ship built in the USA. It used a “water displacement system” rather that the inert nitrogen gas used in Royal Navy ships to guard against aviation fuel explosions in half empty fuel tanks. The American system caused continual trouble with fuel. It was reported that there was always an almost overpowering smell of aviation fuel in the below deck hanger.