On Portsmouth Naval Memorial is the name of P/K 60980 Chief Stoker Josiah Tarn Walton serving on H.M.S. Hood with the Royal Navy who died 24/05/1941.

He was the son of Josiah and Martha Walton and the husband of Ellen Florence Walton.

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
Born on 6th February 1905, Josiah Tarn Walton was the son of blast furnaceman Josiah Walton from Mickleton and Martha (nee Nixon) Walton from Hunderthwaite.  Josiah was born in Mickleton and his brother George (b.1907) in Middlesbrough, where their mother died in 1908.  The 1911 census shows young Josiah staying as a visitor at Lether Cottage, Cotherstone with Annie Stevens, whilst his father and brother were lodgers with the Snowden family in Middlesbrough.

Working as a motor mechanic by 1921 Josiah was now living with his great aunt Mary Hannah Langton at Heatherlea,  Cotherstone.

On 25th April 1923 Josiah signed on with the Royal Navy for 12 years, working on a variety of ships he started as a Stoker II, becoming a Leading Stoker five years later.  When his twelve years up in 1935. he signed on again as Chief Stoker on H.M.S. Hood.

Whilst on shore leave in Portsmouth in summer 1929 he married local girl Ellen Florence Greenleaf.

H.M.S. Hood was sunk in a gunfight with German battleships on 24th May 1941 with the loss of 1415 men.

His great aunt Mary Hannah Langton lived at Heatherlea, Cotherstone until her death in 1955.

Josiah Tarn Walton is remembered at Cotherstone on C127.02 and on our List of Ships’ Crews.