On this day HMS Sheffield, Daryl Cope RN and her crew remembered..
The Royal Navy‘s HMS Sheffield was part of the Task Force 317 that went down to the Falkland Islands during the Falklands war. On the 4th May she was struck by an Exocet anti-ship missile from a Super Étendard aircraft of the Argentine Navy. The ship eventually sank at 53°04′S 56°56′W on 10th May 1982, the first Royal Navy vessel sunk in action since WW2.
During March 2011 Alan, with good friend now RAdm Tim Lowe RN went down to run the Falklands Marathon with the Baton, after that the pair visited virtually all the positions taken back by our forces with the Baton, in the process cleaning many brass memorial plates as they went.
One of the memorials visited saw the pair flying down to Sea Lion Island where the HMS Sheffield Memorial is placed, there they put a specially commissioned English Oak pebble made by a former Royal Marines officer with Daryl Cope’s name and family inscription in Daryl’s memory, Daryl’s mum Marjory heard that Alan was about to go, introduced herself and her connection with the Falkland Islands, Daryl was the youngest member of the crew to lose his life and his mum had been unable to go down to see the memorial.
The visit by Alan and Tim was emotional, recognising our nations gratitude and respect for the forces that went down to liberate the Islands – and of course our loyalty to the very loyal Islanders themselves who were all very welcoming. The British Falkland Islands Falkland Islands