Andrew Behan has kindly carried out some research on this man:
Telegraphist John Walter Wisdom was born on 17 January 1902 in Fulham, the second son of the six children of James Pattison Wisdom and Isabella Emma Wisdom née Morrison. His father was a Fireman in the London Fire Brigade having previously having served for 12 years in the Royal Navy. He was baptised on 9 March 1902 at St John's Church, Walham Green and the family were living at the Fire Station, Fulham Road, Fulham. By 1906 the family had moved to the Albert Embankment Fire Station, Lambeth.
On 17 January 1920 he joined the Royal Navy on a 12 year engagement. He served on several ships before transferring to the Royal Fleet Reserve on 17 January 1932 and he was subsequently awarded the RFR Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. The 1927 and 1928 electoral registers show him on the absent votes list at 139 Braybrook Street, Shepherds Bush and those for 1932 and 1933 show him at 16 Hilary Road, Shepherds Bush. In 1934 he married Lilian Primrose Harman in Hammersmith and electoral registers from 1935 to 1938 show them living at 164 Askew Road, Shepherds Bush and in 1939 at 1 Eccleston Road, Ealing. In November 1934 he was appointed as an Assistant Porter in the London Postal Service and on 15 December 1936 he was promoted to the grade of Sorter in the London Postal Region.
On 31 July 1939 he was recalled to the Royal Navy and he died, aged 38 years, on 21 January 1940 when he was aboard HMS Exmouth, an E-class destroyer, escorting the merchantman Cyprian Prince, that was ferrying guns, vehicles and searchlights to Scapa Flow to bolster the defences of the Fleet’s main wartime base when the two vessels were sighted by the German submarine, U22, in the Moray Firth, some 20 miles off Wick, Scotland. The destroyer was torpedoed shortly before 5am and went down in under five minutes – it’s thought one of her magazines detonated in the aftermath of the initial hit. Although some men took to the water, none were rescued. With a U-boat nearby, the master of the Cyprian Prince deemed it too dangerous to pick up survivors (after hitting HMS Exmouth, U22 fired at, but missed, the merchantman) and it continued to the Orkneys. As a result not one of the 189 souls aboard the destroyer survived. She was the first Royal Navy warship to go down with all hands in WW2. Eighteen bodies were subsequently found washed ashore near Wick. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Panel 40, Column 3, of the Portsmouth Naval Memorial, Hampshire. Administration of his estate was granted to his widow and his effects totalled £290-0s-0d.
