Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee, best known for his TV roles as Dr Who and Worzel Gummidge, joined the Royal Navy in late 1939 as an Ordinary Seaman. He joined HMS Hood in November 1940 and held a number of watch duties. He left the ship in spring 1941 after being selected as an officer candidate, a few weeks before it was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck killing all but 3 crew members. Pertwee served as a naval intelligence officer for the remainder of the war.
Pertwee was an officer in the Royal Navy, spending some time attached to the highly-secretive Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, working alongside future James Bond author Ian Fleming, and reporting directly to Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and Deputy Prime Minister, Clement Attlee.
In an interview conducted in 1994 (but not published until 2013), he said, "I did all sorts. Teaching commandos how to use escapology equipment, compasses in brass buttons, secret maps in white cotton handkerchiefs, pipes you could smoke that also fired a .22 bullet. All sorts of incredible things."
He was a crew member of HMS Hood and was transferred off the ship for officer training shortly before she was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck, losing all but three men. During his time in the Navy, Pertwee woke up one morning after a drunken night out while in port to find a tattoo of a cobra on his right arm.
About HMS Hood:
When war with Germany was declared, Hood was operating in the area around Iceland, and she spent the next several months hunting between Iceland and the Norwegian Sea for German commerce raiders and blockade runners. After a brief overhaul of her propulsion system, she sailed as the flagship of Force H, and participated in the destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. Relieved as flagship of Force H, Hood was dispatched to Scapa Flow, and operated in the area as a convoy escort and later as a defence against a potential German invasion fleet. In May 1941, she and the battleship Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept the German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, which were en route to the Atlantic where they were to attack convoys. On 24 May 1941, early in the Battle of the Denmark Strait, Hood was struck by several German shells and exploded; the loss had a profound effect on the British people.
Date: one month before sinking of the HMS Hood