Martin Arthur Frankland Hood

Lieutenant-Commander (retired) Martin Arthur Frankland Hood, R.N. (22 October, 1887 – 14 May, 1919) served in the Royal Navy.

Life & Career

Born in Nettleton, Lincoln, Hood listed his mother was his guardian upon joining the training ship H.M.S. Britannia in September 1902. His first naval service was in the Home Fleet in Emperor of India from January 1904. In May, he was moved into the battleship Royal Oak, in which he would spend an additional ten months.

Hood obtained a third class certificate in torpedoes as well as second class certificates in pilotage and gunnery in 1907. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant while serving in the second class protected cruiser Scylla on 31 December, 1909. Hood was in T.B. 33 for the Annual Manoeuvres of 1911.

Notably talented in games, gymnastics and boxing, Hood came to specialise in physical training, though his Service Record denotes no special certification. When the war started, he was providing instruction in the armoured cruiser Antrim. On 1 April 1915, he was made first officer in the armed merchant cruiser Orcoma. He was thanked for his service in providing a briefing on German auxiliary vessels in Ireland on 21 April.

On 27 July 1915 Hood was sent to Portsmouth, and he was appointed to the sweeping sloop Bluebell on 10 August, 1915, to take command upon her commissioning for service. He would be cautioned by Vice-Admiral, Commanding, Queenstown, to be more careful in future after grounding the vessel on 10 December, 1915, but he would otherwise remain in command until early March 1917. The Fleet Surgeon would deem Hood unfit at Haulbowline in May. With no explicit diagnostic details noted, Hood was placed on the Retired List as medically unfit on 17 September 1917 and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander (retired) on 31 December, 1917.

He died in 1919 of "general paralysis of the insane," a description often associated with syphilis, though this disease is not mentioned in Hood's Service Record despite the fact that such documents commonly contain such details when known.

See Also

• Service Records
• Memorial plaque for the Hood family at the Imperial War Museum

Bibliography

Naval Appointments
Preceded by New Command	Captain of H.M.S. Bluebell 10 Aug, 1915 – 3 Mar, 1917	Succeeded by Alexander Morison