Corporals Clive Severn and Alfred Child - HMS Triumph (N18)

Gents,

HMS Triumph was lost somewhere in the Aegean Sea in January 1942. No-one knows her position. She went down with all hands onboard including 2 Commando's, Corporals Clive Severn & Alfred Child. Both are listed as serving with 1 SBS and were probably onboard to assist with Folboat landings and leading shore parties as part of SOE (Possibly). There is precious little to add any detail about either of them other than CWGC info. Both are listed on the Brookwood Memorial.

L/Cpl Clive Severn,MiD, Northamptonshire Regiment and 11 (Scottish) Commando. Service No: 5887258. Age 22. Son of Herbert & Gertrude Severn of Daybrook, Nottinghamshire.
Bombardier Alfred Robert Child, Royal Artillery & & Commando. Service No: 915218, Age 25. Son of Charlie & Annie Child, husband of P M Child of Moredun.

Although it is still at an early stage some research has been conducted to determine the are where triumph lies with the hope that a seabed search can be carried out to locate her final resting place.

Any help, advice, guidance or assistance would be gratefully received.

Aye

Steve

Hi Steve ,
Thanks for the information.
We had L/Cpl Severn listed in the No.11 Cdo Nominal Roll but didn't have his service number - this has now been added to his entry.

Cpl Child is listed in the No.7 Commando Nominal Roll & Roll of Honour.

Any additional information you manage to unearth would be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Nick

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 01/07/2016 09:46:56

Steve,
the Nottingham Evening Post published a photograph of Corporal Severn on the 10th August 1942. They had previously reported him missing on the 30th March 1942.
Guy

915218 Bdr. Alfred Robert Child joined the Royal Artillery in 1939.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 01/07/2016 11:33:38

Hi Steve

In addition to what others have said about the individuals we do on our site have several references to HMS Triumph in operations. I am not sure what you have as far as research on its operations so I have checked them and found nothing specific to the loss on our site.

There is a considerable amount of information about operations by MI9 and SOE on this website http://www.hmstriumph1942.com/loss.htm

The Commando connection twofold from what I understand with recce operations being launched from Alexandria and Malta. If you look at page 14 of this document you will see it is mentioned along with the Folbots and Major Courtney http://www.commandoveterans.org/Layforce

A second much smaller Commando group were part of Force X that went to Malta. The SBS were also operating from there at the time. They operated from submarines HMS Triumph and HMS Unbeaten. You may wish to contact David Smith a keen historian and author of a book about HMS Unbeaten. He contacted us about some No 2 Commandos who were named in the Log of Unbeaten. He may have possible lines of research for you to follow.

His website is here http://unbeatenblog.weebly.com/ and there is a contact page under the section about the author.

Some references with crew names for HMS Triumph are in London Gazettes:

Awards in London Gazettes Jan 1942 to many of the crew of HMS Triumph for "courage, skill, and resolution in successive submarine patrols", this page and the next
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35424/supplement/339

Commander Wilfrid John Wentworth Woods, Royal Navy, H.M.S. Triumph.
http://uboat.net/allies/commanders/2712.html

HMS Triumph
http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3488.html

Good luck with your project and please keep us informed of your progress

Regards

Pete

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 05/01/2019 20:44:42

Our thanks to the grandson of Bombardier Alfred Child for a photo of him.

http://www.commandoveterans.org/AlfredChild7Commando

I noted there is a website dedicated to HMS Triumph where both men are mentioned.

http://www.hmstriumph1942.com/loss.htm

I also note that on the Royal Artillery card for Bdr Child above it has Norway rather than the Aegean shown as the theater of war where he died.