Families of those lost in HMS URGE in WW2 have completed a year of commemorations 80 years after the submarine was lost with participation in affiliated town Bridgend’s remembrance events. In April, the President of Malta and British High Commissioner unveiled an HMS URGE Memorial at Fort St Elmo, and wreaths were cast by families and the Royal Navy over the wrecksite off Malta. In May, families attended an HMS URGE event at the NMRN. In November, Bridgend welcomed 18 family members, some of whom visited the Submariner Memorial on their way to Wales.
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nHMS URGE conducted 20 war patrols with multiple successes against enemy capital ships and merchant vessels, and pioneering special forces and secret intelligence operations missions. In 1942 Admiral Horton said her CO Lieutenant-Commander Edward Tomkinson DSO*, RN’s “courage, leadership and great skill were second to none in the Submarine Service either in this War or the last”. The Captain of the 10th Flotilla said of the Coxswain CPO Charley Jackman DSM* that “In URGE’s fine ship’s company one rating stands out with a record that must be for all time exceptional…Jackman had been in action during this war well over 40 times against all types of enemy ships.” Families remember 32 ship’s company, 11 naval passengers and a war correspondent who were all lost on 27 April, 1942, as well as one officer killed on a special mission on 2 October, 1941.