Name: Ronald Charles Hook Rank: Leading Airman (Telegraphist Air Gunner 3rd Class) Service Number: FX671256 Service: 786 Squadron, HMS Jackdaw, Fleet Air Arm Royal Navy Date of Birth: January 23, 1925 Place of Birth: Mutford, Suffolk, England Date of Death: November 15, 1945 Age: 20 Cemetery: Norwich Cemetery, Norfolk Grave: Section 54, Grave 158 Ronald was the son of Charles Edward Clarence Hook (1900-1987) and Lydia Ruth (Pinkney) Hook (1904-1979), and the husband of Audrey Betty (Barrett) Hook (1926-2014) of Mile Cross, Norwich. He had seven siblings. Following his enlistment with the Fleet Air Arm Royal Navy, Ronald was selected for overseas training at No 1 Naval Air Gunner School, part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, at RCAF Station Yarmouth (East Camp) in Nova Scotia. He completed nine months of TAG training in Yarmouth with Course 62A (May 1944). Following his training in Canada, he returned to England, where he married in Norwich in July 1945. He was subsequently assigned to the Fleet Air Arm’s 786 Squadron at HMS Jackdaw, the Royal Navy’s Naval Air Station located at Crail, Fife, in Scotland. Because 786 Squadron functioned as a torpedo bomber training unit, his deployment there was for advanced operational preparation. During a training exercise, the three-man crew was killed when their Fairey Barracuda, serial number LS926, crashed into the sea. The casualties included Telegraphist Air Gunner Ronald Hook, Observer Midshipman (A) Alfred Culshaw (RNVR, born 1926), and Pilot Sub Lieutenant John Lewis Morelli (RNVR).