Kenneth Byrne "Lost at Sea"

Leading Seaman KENNETH CHARLES BYRNE

Service Number: C/SSX 13454

Royal Navy H.M.S. Foxhound.

Died 06 April 1940, aged 27

Buried at Greenock Cemetery Sec. O.O. Joint grave 379B

He lived at The Croft, Totteridge Green, Totteridge. His Probate shows the beneficiary as Charles Edmund Byrne, his father. His mother died when he was an infant, while living in Long Lane, Finchley.

In early April 1940, as Nazi Germany's forces were preparing their invasion of Norway, a British sailor lost his life in service to his country. Leading Seaman Kenneth Charles Byrne died on April 6, 1940, while serving aboard HMS Foxhound. His story, although brief in the historical record, offers a glimpse into the perilous naval operations undertaken by British forces in the early stages of World War II.

Kenneth Charles Byrne served as a Leading Seaman in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Foxhound (H69), one of nine F-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1930s

HMS Foxhound had been assigned to the Home Fleet and based at Scapa Flow at the start of World War II in September 1939. In the first month of hostilities, she was part of an anti-submarine hunting group centred on the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. On September 14, 1939, Foxhound participated in the sinking of the German submarine U-39 northwest of Ireland, alongside her sister ships Faulknor and Firedrake.

By April 1940, HMS Foxhound was actively engaged in operations related to the Norwegian Campaign. Records show that on April 5, 1940, just one day before Byrne's death, Taku and Foxhound arrived in Clyde, Scotland.

On Saturday, April 6, 1940, Leading Seaman Kenneth Charles Byrne was lost at sea. Naval records list him as "MPK" (Missing, Presumed Killed) with the cause of death recorded as drowning. While the exact circumstances of his death are not detailed in the available records, we know that he died while HMS Foxhound was in or near Scottish waters, having arrived in the Clyde the previous day.  His body was recovered and he was buried in Greenock.

Byrne's death occurred just days before the German invasion of Norway (Operation Weserübung), which began on April 9, 1940, and the subsequent naval engagements known as the First and Second Battles of Narvik. Had he lived, Byrne would likely have participated in the Second Battle of Narvik on April 13, 1940, in which HMS Foxhound played a significant role.