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GORDON FREDERICK RHODES Royal Navy - HMS Janus
1923 - 23rd January 1944

Gordon was the only son of Frederick George and Elizabeth Emily Rhodes. He was very
young when he signed up for the Navy in 1942, still a teenager, being assigned to HMS
Janus, which was a British Navy destroyer built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson
Ltd. in Wallsend in 1937 and launched in 1938. It was commissioned in August 1939.

The ship certainly had an eventful naval service, patrolling the seas from Norway to Egypt
and Italy. In April 1940, HMS Janus was involved in convoy escort duties in Norwegian
waters. By May it was patrolling the North Sea carrying out mine laying and in July 1940,
she was a member of the 14th Flotilla based on Alexandria, Egypt and involved in the
bombardment of Bardia which was part of Operation Compass, the first military operation
of the Western Desert Campaign of the War, and involved Commonwealth troops from
Australia. Thousands of prisoners were captured and the Italian garrison held out only in
the northern and southernmost parts of the fortress. The victory at Bardia enabled the
Allied forces to continue the advance into Libya and ultimately led to the German
intervention in the fighting in North Africa, changing the nature of the war in that part of the
world.

At the beginning of 1944, HMS Janus was involved in the landings of Anzio, Italy, but on the
23rd January the ship was unfortunately hit by a flying bomb and sunk in about 20 minutes
with a heavy loss of life but fortunately there were more than 80 survivors.

In Memoriam: Gordon Rhodes is remembered on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

JOHN JAMES ROBINSON, Corporal - Gloucester Regiment, No. 3 Commando
1917 - 13th August 1944

John James' parents married in Foots Cray in July 1914 just weeks before the start of the
First World War. They set up home in Ivy Cottages, Foots Cray. 24-year-old James
Robinson was a coach painter and his wife, Ada Rose (nee Brock) was a 28-year-old widow
with no children from her previous marriage. Ada's first husband - George Frederick Brock,
died in Southampton on 31st August 1911, aged just 35 years. He left £130 to widow which
was then quite a substantial sum.

George Frederick Brock (born 1880), had been in the Navy and certainly had a very
adventurous time. In 1901, he was a shipmate on the ship "HMS Terrible" which was in
trading with China, when the Boxer Riots erupted. The crew of the "Terrible" were under
British orders to quell the Boxer riots with force if necessary. George Brock also previously
served in the Anglo-Boer War, South Africa 1899-1902 and was duly awarded a medal for
his efforts. His father, Charles, had had a Naval career and became a Chelsea pensioner.
Although living in Southampton, he had been born in London.

We do not know why Ada Rose Brock moved to Foots Cray, but within a few years of being
widowed she had married again and started a family. Her husband had a few years
previously been employed as a coachman at Foots Cray Place. Their son, born 1917, John
James Robinson, first served with the Gloucester Regiment but later transferred to the
elite Army Unit of No. 3 Commando and rose to the rank of Corporal. Commando's were
highly trained for one-to-one fighting, to achieve the impossible and to undertake Guerrilla
type warfare. They had to be both extremely fit, brave and skilful.

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