Man of STEEL

REPUTATIONS

Michael E Haskew explores the career of the naval hero who chased the mighty Bismarck, stood his ground amid political struggle and shepherded convoys through troubled waters

FACT FILE: JOHN TOVEY

Nickname: Jack

Born: March 7, 1885, Rochester, Kent

Died: January 12, 1971 (aged 85), in Funchal, Madeira

Allegiance: British Empire

Service/branch: Royal Navy

Battles/wars: World War One: Battle of Dogger Bank, Battle of Jutland, Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. World War Two: Battle of Calabria, the Bismarck Chase, Convoy PQ17

Awards: GCB, KBE, DSO, DCL (honorary), MiD, Order of St Anna (Russian Empire), Legion of Merit (United States), Order of Suvorov (USSR), Order of the Phoenix (Greece)

The news shook the Royal Navy like a thunderclap. The battlecruiser HMS Hood, pride of the fleet for a generation, was gone in a flash; destroyed in the Denmark Strait by the guns of the Bismarck and her consort, the cruiser Prinz Eugen.

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