Andrew Behan has kindly carried out some research on this man:
Able Seaman John Stephen Edward Greenland. Born in 1921 in Paddington, London, the son of Frank Harold and Alice Elizabeth Greenland. His father was a Postman. By 1927 the family were living at 62 Pleasance Road, Putney, S.W.15. On the 6th November 1937 he was appointed as a Postman in the London Postal Region. He joined the Royal Navy, service number P/JX30053, and on the 23rd October 1943 was serving aboard H.M.S. Charybdis, a Dido Class Cruiser, when it was partaking in Operation Tunnel, trying to intercept a German blockade runner, the Munsterland, in the English Channel off the northern coast of Brittany, France. H.M.S. Charybdis was hit on the port side by two torpedoes fired by the German torpedo boats T-23, under the command of Friedrich-Karl Paul, and T-27. The German force escaped unharmed. H.M.S. Charybdis sank within half an hour with the loss of over 400 men. Only four officers and 103 ratings survived. He died aged 22 years and his body was never recovered. He is also commemorated on Panel 73, Column 3, on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Southsea, Hampshire.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan
