Themes

The Navy at Home and Abroad

• Shore Establishments

• Humanitarian Relief

• Flying the Flag

• Letters Home

• Prisoners of War

  • JM D’Arcy-Levy

  • David Bain

  • Rupert Lonsdale

  • HMS Oswald

  • Mervyn Scott-Lindslay

  • Ken McDonald

  • Jim Fallace

  • R H Johnson

Learning

• How to: Understand a Uniform

Ken McDonald

Article Highlights

• Introduction

• Early Career

• Action in Crete

• Imprisonment in Greece

• In the German Reich

• Career after the War

Early career
Royal Marines Bandsman Ken McDonald was born in Gosport on 22 July 1917. In 1931, at the age of 14 years, he joined the Royal Naval School of Music at Deal as a Band Boy.

Whilst at Deal McDonald learned trumpet and violin. In July 1933 he joined the carrier HMS Courageous, which was serving as part of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet. McDonald later served on the China Station in HMS Hermes.

In 1937 he served in the battleships HMS Resolution and HMS Royal Sovereign, patrolling off Spain during the Civil War on non-intervention duties , before commissioning the brand-new cruiser HMS Gloucester shortly before the start of World War Two, in 1939. He spent the next 18 months running the gauntlet of enemy air and sea attacks whilst escorting convoys to Malta and Alexandria.

To learn about the action involving Bandsman Ken McDonald’s subsequent capture, select Next

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