Tuesday 13 January 2009

Bill Stone: 23 September 1900 – 10 January 2009




The last veteran to serve in both wars. Joining the Royal Navy at age 18 (seven weeks before the Armistice) Bill Stone served as a stoker during the Summer of 1919 at Scapa Flow, where he witnessed the scuttling of the German Battlefleet. During the 1920's Bill served on the HMS Hood, the flagship of the British fleet. By the Second World War he was serving aboard the minesweeper, HMS Salamander. It was aboard this ship in 1940 that he was sent to Dunkirk to rescue British Troops. Bill Stone served the rest of the war in the Mediterranean, where he took part in the landings in Sicily, earning a mentions in dispatches in the process. Leaving the Navy in 1945 with the rank of Stoker Chief Petty Officer, Bill Stone ran a barber shop until retirement. He was 108.

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