John Stuart Kirkland

Kirkland started at the Royal Naval College, Osborne on 15th January 1909 at the age of 12 and spent two years there. He then moved to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth to complete his education before passing out as a midshipman on 15th September 1913. He was given a Very Good report on passing out and it was noted that his German was promising.

Kirkland was posted to HMS Bellerophon, a battleship in the 1st Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet to undergo sea training. In December of that year the Squadron visited several Mediterranean ports including Gibraltar, Barcelona, Toulon and Salamis. In April 1914 Bellerophon was transferred to the 4th Battle Squadron and proceeded to Scapa Flow three weeks after war was declared. The following month Kirkland was promoted to Acting Sub Lieutenant (15th September) and commenced E R duty on 20th September. However he did not remain much longer on Bellerophon being transferred to HMS Attentive on 30th November 1915

Attentive was a light cruiser which led the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, based at Dover and Kirkland was intended to serve in HMS Racehorse a torpedo boat destroyer in that flotilla. The 6th Flotilla was engaged in anti-submarine and counter-mining patrols off the Belgian coast. Kirkland only served on Racehorse for 4 months (until 23rd March 1916) by which time he had already been taken to Chatham Hospital with jaundice on the 15th March, the same day his promotion to Sub Lieutenant was confirmed. He spent two weeks in hospital but was not finally declared fit until 5th May when he was posted to HMS Dido a cruiser which had been converted to act as a depot ship for the destroyer flotillas at Harwich. Kirkland was posted from her to HMS Turbulent of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla. Sometime in May Turbulent was sent to Rosyth, the battle cruisers’ base and was attached to the 13th Destroyer Flotilla. As a result when Beatty sailed to rendezvous with the Grand Fleet on 30th May Turbulent was one of the screening destroyers.