Nationality:

British

In August 1914, while underage, David Hood joined the Army and joined the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He joined the Battalion’s ‘B’ Company and fought in the 2nd Battle of Ypres and was in the front line at Loos, involved in burial parties and in training with gas masks. In late 1915 he was attached to a Royal Engineer mining company, tunnelling under enemy lines, and was rescued from asphyxiation in a shaft.
In 1916 Hood joined the Royal Flying Corp as an Aircraftsman and at their 2nd Repair Depot in France.
In January 1919 he was demobilised from the Royal Air Force and returned to his marine engineering apprenticeship on the River Clyde.
By the start of the Second World War David Hood was an Engineer Officer on Royal Fleet Auxilary (RFA) Cairndale. On 30 May 1941 RFA Cairndale was torpedoed and sank. The crew abandoned the ship and the survivors were rescued and taken to Gibraltar.
He was promoted Chief Engineer Officer and appointed, on 11 July 1941, to RFA Gray Ranger on Arctic Convoys. During one convoy the ship collided with an iceberg and had to return to the UK for repairs.
RFA Gray Ranger was torpedoed and sunk on 22 September 1942 while part of Convoy QP14 and David Hood was once more rescued from a ship’s lifeboat.
On 26 November 1942 Hood was appointed as Chief Engineer Officer on RFA Dingledale serving in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and in the Far East where he served until 16 December 1946.

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Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Chief Engineer Officer

Unit:

Grey Ranger, Royal Fleet Auxilary

Awarded on:

February 16th, 1943

Citation (general):
"For fortitude, seamanship and endurance in taking Merchantmen and Royal Fleet Auxiliaries to North Russia through heavy seas and in the face of many attacks by enemy aircraft and submarines."

• - Page 825 | Supplement 35906, 12 February 1943 | London Gazette | The Gazette
  - Historical RFA recording the History and Honour of the RFA