Robert William George Kingshott
Robert William George Kingshott was a Warrant Officer Class II with 7 Coast Regiment, Royal Artillery. His service number was 840146.
Royal Artillery Cap Badge
Robert was born in Bramshott, Hampshire in 1914 and was the eldest of three children born to William George & Ada Jessie Kingshott.
Robert is recorded as dying "at sea" on 2nd March 1942. Examination of the official records of ships sunk on that day shows only one British war ship, the HMS Stronghold, was sunk. It is therefore appropriate to conclude that Robert was on that ship.
HMS Stonghold
On 2 March 1942, HMS Stonghold was engaged in escort duties, escorting the Dutch ship SS Zaandam with refugees from TJilatap bound for Fremantle, Western Australia. She became detached from the faster merchant ship and was sighted by Japanese aircraft south of the Sunda Stait.
A Japanese task group consisting of the heavy cruiser Maya and the destroyers Arashi and Nowaki, belonging to a Japanese carrier force operating south of the Indonesian island of Java, discovered and sank HMS Stronghold (commanded by Lt.Cdr. G.R. Pretor Pinney, R.N.), fleeing from Tjilatjap to Australia. The ship sank at 1858 hours at postition 12º20'S, 112º00E. About fifty survivors were picked up by the small Dutch merchant Bintoehan that later transferred them to the Imperial Japanese Navy ship Maya. Unfortunately, Robert was not one of them.