D/M Chief Ordnance Artificer Michael James Wilfred Day
Royal Navy, HMS Gloucester D/M35202
Date of Birth: 19th of April 1897
Place of Birth: Pilgwently, Newport, Wales
Date of Death: 22nd of May 1941, aged 44
Buried: Plymouth Naval Memorial
Awarded the 1939-1945 Star and the War Medal 1939-1945
Son of Henry Day and Mary Day, and husband of Joyce Vera Day (née Court) of Teignmouth, Devon.
HMS Gloucester
HMS Gloucester was one of the last batch of three Town-class light cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the late 1930s. Commissioned shortly before the start of World War II in August 1939, the ship was initially assigned to the China Station and was transferred to the Indian Ocean and later to South Africa to search for German commerce raiders.
HMS Gloucester - Gordon Smith Naval-History.Net
She was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet in mid-1940 and spent much of her time escorting Malta Convoys.
HMS Gloucester played minor roles in the Battle of Calabria in 1940 and the Battle of Cape Matapan in 1941.
German dive bombers © IWM MH 5591
She was sunk by German dive bombers on the 22nd of May 1941 during the Battle of Crete with the loss of 722 men out of a crew of 807. HMS Gloucester acquired the nickname "The Fighting G" after earning five battle honours in less than a year.
