On Portsmouth Naval Memorial is the name of P/JX 245080 Ordinary Seaman John Geoffrey Clapham serving  on H.M.S. Galatea with the Royal Navy who died 15/12/1941.

John Geoffrey Clapham was the son of Robert Harvey Clapham and Mary Clapham, of Yarm, Yorkshire.

John Geoffrey was born the 2nd December 1913. In 1939 the family were living at Crofton House, West Street, Yarm. Father Robert Harvey Clapham, born 1876, was a retired Master Grocer. Mother Mary Hedley was born in 1876, his brother Robert Hedley, born 17th April 1910, was a laboratory Assistant in Heavy Chemical Industry and John was a Rope, Twine and Waterproof Cover Maker.

HMS Galatea was hit by the German U Boat U 577, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Ottokar Arnold Paulssen on 15th December 1941, (Capt. E.W.B. Sim, RN), with three torpedoes about 35 miles west of Alexandria, as the cruiser was returning to this harbour with the cruiser force of the Mediterranean Fleet after a hunt for an Italian convoy to Libya. The commander, 22 officers and 447 ratings were lost. 144 survivors were picked up by H.M.S. Griffin (H 31) (Capt. H. St. L. Nicholson, D.S.O., R.N.) and H.M.S. Hotspur (H 01) (Lt T.D. Herrick, D.S.C., R.N.).

Acknowledgments: Barney Rice

John Geoffrey Clapham is remembered at Yarm on Y1.03, Y1.05 and Y1.06 and in our List of Ships’ Crews.