On Sunday the 11th of January members of both Gosport and Portsmouth Submariners Association’s gathered in Remembrance at Ann’s Hill Cemetery in Gosport at the Graveside of Petty Officer Stoker, Mervyn Baptist Johnson, one of the 64 men who perished in the HMS Truculent Disaster. 

The service was conducted by the Reverend Ralf Barber KHC, Chaplain Royal Navy and Chaplain to the Gosport Submariners Association and the remembrance was read by Gosport SA Chairman Steve Thorpe MBE.  

The T Class submarine Truculent, served proudly in both World War 2 and the following peacetime.   HMS Truculent foundered in a Collision in the Thames Estuary with the Swedish tanker Divina when returning from sea trials after a dockyard maintenance period.  Of the 64 that tragically died on the 12th of January 1950, 46 were RN personnel and the other 18 were Civilian Dockyard works from Chatham Dockyard. 

Also remembered at the service were the 5 RAF airmen who tragically were killed when their Avro Lancaster of RAF Coastal Command, crashed on take-off from RAF Kinloss in Scotland, enroute to assist in the Truculent rescue operation.