How an HMS Hood survivor ended up in Stockheath
As most of us know, there were only three survivors from the sinking of HMS Hood by the German battleship Bismarck in 1941.
They were Ordinary Seaman Ted Briggs, Midshipman William Dundas and Able Seaman Robert Tilburn.
At that time a naval camp had recently opened in what is now Leigh Park Estate but was known as Stockheath Naval Camp. It was also a survivors and overflow camp from Victory Barracks and sailors returning after surviving the sinking of their ships were sent to Stockheath to be re-kitted and convalesce.
I received a letter from a former sailor who was at the camp who told me he had met Bob Tilburn and was at Stockheath working alongside him in the radio room. He wrote: “I was only with him for a couple of weeks and then he was drafted.” Bob went on to serve until August 1952 and passed away in February 1995 after serving as president of the HMS Hood Association for 20 years.
The site of Stockheath Naval Camp became overgrown but in 1970 a self-build group purchased the land and the camp now lies under Great Copse Drive.
What later became Stockheath School in Bedhampton was the former officers quarters and admin offices for HMS Daedalus III, a Nissen hutted camp and an overflow camp from HMS Daedalus at Lee on the Solent and was nothing to do with Stockheath Naval Camp a mile and half away.
My book The Naval Camps of Bedhampton and Leigh Park gives much, much more information.