(Photo: uboat.net)

Kenneth Woods was born in Grappenhall, Chester on 5 October 1907, son of Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) Charles Robert Sandford Woods (1st South Lancashire Regiment) and Mrs Dorothea Mostyn Woods.  He joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet in May 1921.  On 15 January 1925 he was appointed to the Battleship HMS MALAYA for training.  Promoted to Midshipman on 15 September 1925, to Sub Lieutenant on 1 January 1928 and appointed to HMS DOLPHIN ‘for the Submarine Course’ on 29 April 1929, Kenneth joined the Submarine Depot Ship HMS VULCAN ‘for Submarines’ on 7 September 1929 as a qualified Submariner.

Later, he joined the Submarine Depot Ship HMS MEDWAY ‘for HMS ODIN as Third Hand’.  HMS MEDWAY, in company with four Submarines – HM Submarines OSIRIS, ODIN, OTUS, and OSWALD, sailed from Portsmouth for the Far East on 24 May 1930 to form the 4th Submarine Flotilla at Hong Kong. Kenneth Woods was promoted to Lieutenant on 16 Sep 30 and appointed to HMS ODIN as First Lieutenant on 1 Sep 31. He then moved to HMS STARFISH as First Lieutenant on 3 Jul 33. In January 1935 he was serving in HMS THAMES as First Lieutenant to which he had been appointed on 8 December 34.

On completion of his Commanding Officers Qualifying Course (COQC), which he commenced in January 1936, he was appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS LUCIA (2nd Submarine Flotilla) ‘for HMS SWORDFISH in Command’ on 8 August 1936.

Promoted to Lieutenant Commander on 16 September 1938, his next submarine command appointment was to HMS ODIN in February 1940, joining the submarine whilst completing a short refit in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).  HMS ODIN then carried out one War Patrol in the Indian Ocean before being ordered to the Mediterranean.

The submarine was reported missing on her 1st Mediterranean patrol in June 1940 and was subsequently declared lost with All Hands in the Gulf of Taranto about 17 nautical miles east-north-east of Punta Alice, Crotone, Italy (in position 39⁰30’N, 17⁰30’E) after an attack by the Italian destroyers STRALE and BALENO on 14 June 1940.

Kenneth Woods was the husband of Adine Clotilda Woods of St Anne’s, Midhurst, Sussex – they had been married in the Parish Church of St Mark, North Audley Street in London on 8 October1932.  He is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval War Memorial on Panel No. 36 Column No. 3.