1942_11_15_skene_nigel.jpg

Major, Royal Marines
Born: 2 March 1907
Died: 15 November 1942

Age at Death: 35

Killed in HMS Avenger, 15 November 1942

House Prefect 1923
School Prefect 1925
Head of House 1925
3rd XV 1924-1925
Shooting VIII 1924-1925

Nigel Skene was born in Norwich on 2 March 1907 to Rev. Robert Skene, a Clerk in Holy Orders, and his wife Fanny (née Smith). At the College he became Head of House and a member of the Shooting VIII.

By 1930 Skene was in the RAF, and by 1931 he was flying torpedo bombers from the carrier HMS Glorious. In 1936 he transferred to the Royal Marines, and in 1940 was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, ‘Awarded for Air Operations’, while assigned to another carrier, the Ark Royal. On 15 November 1942 he was on the HMS Avenger, an escort carrier protecting a convoy travelling from Gibraltar to the Clyde in Scotland, when it was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine commanded by Adolf Piening, a famous U-boat ace. The ship sank within two minutes; Skene was not among the survivors. He is commemorated at the Lee-on-Solent Fleet Air Arm Memorial in Hampshire.

Comment