Harold John Odell

Name

Harold John Odell

Conflict

Second World War

Date of Death / Age

12/10/1940
18

Rank, Service Number & Service Details

Able Seaman
C/JX 157109
Royal Navy
H.M.S. Ajax

Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards

Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country

CHATHAM NAVAL MEMORIAL
35, 3.
United Kingdom

Headstone Inscription

NA

UK & Other Memorials

Tilehouse St. Baptist Church Memorial, Hitchin

Biography

He was probably a professional sailor, and his Service Number was C/JX 157109. He was in the crew of the cruiser H.M.S. ‘Ajax’ which two months later was to achieve fame in the Battle of the River Plate against the German pocket-battleship ‘Admiral Graf Spee’. 


On the 12th October 1940 the ‘Ajax’ was sailing in the Eastern Mediterranean from Alexandria approximately 100 miles east of Malta at 35" 22'N and 16°58'£ with the s battle fleet. At 01.53hrs enemy aircraft were sighted and the ‘Ajax’ opened fire. At 02.00hrs the warship was damaged due to enemy action. At 02.41hrs firing was complete and action broken off. Thirteen men, including H.J. Odell, were killed. At 04.16hrs the fire in the central store due to enemy action was under control. At 06.30hrs Course 270° was taken to re-join the battle fleet. At 16.00hrs hands fell in on the quarterdeck for the burial service. At 16.30hrs pipe down. 


He has no grave but the sea and is remembered on the Chatham Memorial to the Missing on Panel 35, Column 3. 


He was the son of Alice Louisa Odell of Hitchin. 

Acknowledgments

David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Ship's Log ADM 53/11329 at the Public Record Office, Kew