Name: Samuel Gaudet Rank: Ordinary Seaman Service Number: P/JX 212478 Service: HMS Hood, Royal Navy Date of Birth: August 17, 1917 Place of Birth: Stephenville, Newfoundland Date of Enlistment: Unknown Place of Enlistment: England Date of Death: May 24, 1941 Age: 23 Memorial: Portsmouth Memorial, England Reference: Panel 58, Column 2 Commemorated on Page 161 of the Newfoundland Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on March 22, July 9, and October 20 Samuel Gaudet was the son of Octavius ‘Octave’ Gaudet (1868) and Marie Susan (Gallant) Gaudet (1873–1936) of Stephenville Crossing, Newfoundland. He was from a large family with more than fifteen siblings. Samuel’s sister, Mary Ellen lived in Jollymore Village, on the west side of the Northwest Arm, opposite the Halifax Peninsula in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She moved to Nova Scotia in 1916 and worked at the City Home on South Street in Halifax as a nurse. She married William Thomas Graves (1894-1974) of Jollimore, who served with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in the First World War. Samuel’s older brother Henry enlisted in the US Army and served with the 17th Company of the Coastal Artillery Corps, and served with the Quartermaster Corps. He enlisted on October 24, 1918, and was discharged June 20, 1919, at Camp Devens, Massachusetts; a Private First Class. He was living in, and entered the service from Brewer in Penobscot Co., Maine. In 1931, at the age of 9, Samuel was living in Saint John, New Brunswick. Later, Samuel’s mother also lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1935-1936. She died of a pulmonary embolism at the Victoria General Hospital in 1936. Samuel was a member of the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit (his NOFU No. was 0421) and later transferred to the Royal Navy during the Second World War. The NOFU was a band of about 3,500 men, who answered the call of the Commissioner for National Resources for much needed loggers to work in Britain to aid the great need for wood during the Second World War. After enlisting in the Royal Navy, Samuel went on to serve aboard HMS Hood, a battlecruiser. Hood is believed to have been the only ship on which he served. Ordinary Seaman Gaudet was killed when HMS Hood was sunk on May 24, 1941, during the Battle of the Denmark Strait by the German battleship Bismarck. There were only 3 survivors out of a crew of 1,418. It remains the greatest single loss of life in Royal Navy history. Samuel’s second cousins, William Gallant and Joseph Gallant, were also lost serving on HMS Hood. All three men were from Stephenville Newfoundland, joined the NOFU together, transferred to the Royal Navy together, and were unfortunately all lost with the sinking of the Hood.

Sources Canadian Virtual War Memorial Commonwealth War Graves Commission