Basil Hedley Martin (known as Hedley) was born in Paddington on 5 March 1920, the son of John Hedley Martin and Kathleen Martin. The Martins moved from Paddington to Wincanton.  Hedley Martin lived at “The Firs” on Bayford Hill and went to Wincanton School and Sexey’s School, Bruton.

He joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in 1935 at the age of 15 and trained at HMS GANGES. He became Able Seaman in 1939 and served in the Norway campaign on board HMS ESCAPADE, an escort destroyer, and remained in her until March 1943 when he volunteered for submarine service training at the Submarine School in Gosport.

It was not until May 1944 that Hedley actually joined the submarine service due to a posting in the Fleet Air Arm. It was at Portsmouth that he joined his submarine, the recently refitted HMS PORPOISE which was due for transfer to the submarine base at Trincomalee, Ceylon. HMS PORPOISE sailed from Trincomalee on 2 January 1945 intending to lay mines off the southern end of Penang Island, Malaya, then occupied by the Japanese. A signal was received from the submarine confirming the mission was successfully carried out. Japanese records show that a submarine was spotted in the area of Penang and bombed by aircraft but not destroyed. The submarine was leaking oil and was chased by antisubmarine forces and assumptions were made it was HMS PORPOISE, which sank on 16 January 1945. Hedley has no known grave and is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial on Panel 93, Column 3.

Some details of his Naval Service above are taken from the Wincanton & District RBL Newsletter July 2020.