Biography

Family background

John Spencer Longbottom was born on the 11th August 1912 in Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of Joseph Fearnley Longbottom and his wife Nora Beatrice Longbottom. John was baptised on the 14th October 1912 at St. John's Church, Smallbridge, Lancashire and the register shows that Joseph was a colliery proprietor, and that the family lived at Cliffe House, Wardle Lane.

We do not have any details of John's early life, but by 1934 Joseph and his family had moved across the pennines and were living at Hillside, Rigton Hills in Bardsey. Bardsey remains as the family address in 1935 and 1936, but in 1937 the electoral rolls show Joseph, Nora and John are now living at Wayside, Leeds Road, Collingham, and that is also their address in 1939. By that time Joseph is a colliery agent, Nora does unpaid domestic duties and John is a Tyre Factor's Manager.

In October 1939, John married Cecily Mary Smith (1905-1989) in Wetherby and by the time he joined the Royal Navy his address was listed as "The Fields", Linton Road, Collingham Bridge, Leeds.

Service record

John joined the Royal Navy on the 28th May 1940 at HMS Royal Arthur. HMS Royal Arthur was a shore establishment (also known as a stone frigate) of the Royal Navy and in 1940 was at the requisitioned Butlins holiday camp at Ingoldmells near Skegness. This former holiday camp was used to train men who had come forward to serve in the Navy for 'hostilities only' ie only for the duration of the war, and was mainly used to train communications branch ratings and officers (signalmen, telegraphists, coders and wireless operators). After some basic training there, John was posted, on the 5th July 1940 to HMS Victory 2, another shore-based training establishment. John remained there until the 9th October 1940, and on the 10th he was posted to HMS Collingwood.

HMS Collingwood was, in 1940, another shore establishment that had benn commissioned as the fourth HMS Collingwood on 10 January 1940, initially to instruct "hostilities only" ratings of the seaman branch. It's likely that as well as general naval training in these stone frigates, John would have also started learning specialist skills. He eventually was posted for his service at sea as a Supply Assistant. The Supply Department of a ship is responsible for feeding and paying the ship’s crew, including the running of ship’s wardroom(s) and messing spaces. This department holds responsibility for the laundry and cleaning services, stores, barbershops, and recreation services. This department also stocks spare parts for the ship and a Supply Department is headed by the ship’s Supply Officer, having assistants for disbursing, food service, ship’s store, or wardroom mess. John Longbottom's training would have started preparing him for such roles.

John Longbottom remained attached to HMS Collingwood until the 14th March 1941, before he spent about a week assigned to HMS Victory, until, on the 21st March 1941, he joined HMS Emerald.

HMS Emerald was an E-Class Cruiser completed in 1926. After World War 1, in 1938 she was paid-off at Chatham dockyard and became a Boys Training Ship. In July 1939, just before World War 2, Emerald was recommissioned and on the outbreak of war joined the 12th Cruiser Squadron and took up her War Station on 31st August when she sailed from Scapa Flow for interception of German shipping on Northern Patrol. Emerald had a ship's company of about 680 men. In October 1939 and early 1940, before John Longbottom joined her crew, Emerald had been one of the ships responsible for transporting Britain's Gold Bullion to Canada for safe keeping, but by March 1941, she was part of 4th Cruiser Squadron and between 11th and 23rd March was escort to convoy BM4 on passage to Bombay from Colombo. We do not know exactly where John joined the ship but on the 23rd March Emerald was detached from BM4 and took passage to Trincomalee.

In early April HMS Emerald called at Colombo and then sailed to Karachi, arriving on the 8th April. From there she was sent to the Persian Gulf to support operations after a coup d'etat offered the threat of German forces entering Iraq, and Emerald sailed to Basra, arriving on the 13th April. She was joined on the 20th by HMS Leander with military convoy BM7 bringing Indian troops.

In May 1941 HMS Emerald was deployed in Persian Gulf up the Shatt-el-Arab in support of military operations. During this time a serious outbreak of malaria on board caused concerns with over 70 cases and 2 deaths.

June 1941 saw Emerald released from service in the Persian Gulf, and she resumed trade defence duties at Colombo and convoy escort duties to and from Singapore.

On Wednesday 4th June 1942, at 8.15 in the morning, HMS Emerald slipped harbour from Bombay in India and in the company of two tugs and with a pilot on board, made her way down the port's mineswept safe channel on route to Columbo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). During the journey, the ship took anti-submarine and anti-mine defensive measures, and practiced action station drills, but the journey was uneventful. HMS Emerald docked in Columbo at 09.45 on the morning of Friday 6th June 1942. In port the crew were cleaning the ship and at 4pm were embarking provisions - probably a busy time for John Longbottom as a Supply Assistant.

Harbour routine and re-provisioning continued for five days, with shore leave being granted for men during this time. On Wednesday the 11th June, HMS Emerald set sail again, this time bound for Singapore, but first the ship's crew were addressed on board by the Commander in Chief East. They left Columbo at 17.25, passing down the swept channel and taking precautions against magnetic and floating mines as they left. The journey was uneventful, with firing practices, and exercising action stations along the route. During their patrol they spotted, and spoke with, a number of merchant vessels also making their ways through the shipping channels.

Sunday 15th June 1941 dawned clear, calm and hot - at 4am Sunday morning it was already 82° F (28° C). At 05.20am Emerald's crew was awoken and exercised at Action Stations until 6am when the crew settled into their normal routine and cleaning the ship. At that time Emerald was in the Malacca Straits heading for Singapore. As it was Sunday a Divine Service was held on board at 10am. Normal procedures were followed with some men on duty while others could relax and rest. At this latitude in June sunrise was around 7am and sunset at about 7.20pm. The night was dark with no moon. Those men not on duty in the evening therefore probably settled down to rest and sleep around this time in the evening. The temperature was sweltering and sleeping in doors was difficult so some men had taken to sleeeping in the open on deck.

Suddenly at 21.55pm HMS Emerald sighted a dark object bearing Green 2° (ie about 2° fine on the starboard (right) bow ahead) about 4,000 yards away coming straight towards it. This was apparently a ship heading towards Emerald. The Captain (Captain Francis Cyril Flynn), who had been resting in his cabin, was immediately called and Emerald altered course to starboard in accordance with the Rule of the Road which says that if two ships under steam are meeting end on, or nearly end on, so as to involve risk of collision, each shall alter her course to starboard, so that each may pass on the port side of the other. At around this time the Captain arrived on the bridge. Unfortunately the other ship, which turned out to be HMS Dauntless (Captain John Graham Hewitt), mistook Emerald for a slow moving junk, and instead of turning to starboard, turned to port. At the relative speeds and distances of the two ships collision became inevitable. Emerald rang the alarm and both ships put on navigational lights but a collision occurred at 21.57 in position 2° 09' North, 102° 04' East. The time interval between first sightling Dauntless and the collision was only about 3 to 4 minutes. The bows of HMS Dauntless struck Emerald's port side and skated down the side of Emerald. The collision caused a hole in the hull below the armoured belt on the port side which resulted in the flooding of the foremost engine room to a depth of about 14 feet. In addition major damage was caused by Dauntless's bows catching Emerald's forward torpedo tubes which were trained outboard and sweeping those tubes backwards over everything on the deck until they were piled onto the aft torpedo tubes. A fire started on Emerald immediately alongside the after torpedo tubes mainly from the TNT from the damaged torpedo warheads. The fire was extinguished after some little time by the crew and steam was raised in another boiler room to allow Emerald to proceed.

Unfortunately 16 men of Emerald's crew were killed in the collision, including John Spencer Longbottom, and a further 6 men were injured. These men were almost without exception sleeping on the port side of the upper deck and they were swept up in the debris between the torpedo tubes and crushed or injured by the deck being ripped up and splintered.

Eventually, at 01.58, the Emerald was able to make headway again, although running on only two shafts and at a reduced speed (60 revolutions) and by 08.36 on the 16th June, the ships hands were employed clearing up the debris. The bodies of some of the dead were committed to the deep at 11.30 on the 16th June close to position 1° 38' N 102° 49' E and a further body was buried at sea at 18.00 that same evening. Supply Assistant Longbottom was one of those buried at sea and he is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

By 01.37 on the 17th June, the ship had reached Singapore and at 05.25 was secured at No.12 Berth, Naval Base from where HMS Emerald was latter towed to the King George V Floating Dock for repairs which took several months.

Meanwhile, back in Collingham, news reached the village of the loss of John Longbottom:

In Singapore, a Board of Inquiry into the circumstances attending the collision between HM Ships Emerald and Dauntless was held on the 19th and 20th June 1941. This Board was carried out in two parts and a number of those involved gave evidence. The Board came to a number of conclusions about how the event happened and who was to blame.

John Spencer Longbottom was buried at sea in the Malacca Straits, the victim of a cruel accident and the fact that it was cooler to sleep on the open decks than to sleep in the mess decks, safely in the ship.

Biography last updated 19 April 2022 17:11:51.