James ‘Jim’ Wren, one of the last surviving veterans of the sinking of HMS Repulse, has died aged 105.
A Royal Marine, Jim survived the worst naval disaster of the Second World War, endured three and a half years as a prisoner of war under the Japanese, and later became patron of the Force Z, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse Survivors’ Association.
Born in 1920, Jim joined the Royal Marines in 1939 at the age of 19. After training at Stonehouse in Plymouth, he was posted in 1940 to the battlecruiser HMS Repulse. Launched in 1916, the ship was fast, heavily armed and one of Britain’s key capital ships.
During Arctic convoy duties, Repulse took part in operations against German battleships like Gneisenau and Bismarck. Jim later recalled the gruelling conditions, but also the camaraderie among the crew. ‘The ship was very well organised, and we had a great Captain,’ he said. ‘It was gruelling work, especially in the Arctic. The camaraderie was marvellous. I met some really super men in those days. I can never forget them.’
In December 1941, HMS Repulse sailed from Singapore as part of Force Z alongside the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales. On 10th December Japanese aircraft attacked, and within hours both ships were sunk. Repulse went down at 12.32pm.
Of her crew, 513 were lost, including 30 of the 55 Royal Marines aboard.
Jim was blown into the sea, covered in oil, and survived by clinging to a Carley float before being rescued. ‘I lost many good friends,’ he said on his 100th birthday. ‘I was with them every day. I can still see their faces.’
After evacuation attempts in Singapore, Jim was captured and taken to Sumatra, where he spent three and a half years in brutal captivity.
Prisoners of war endured starvation rations, disease and forced labour clearing jungle and building airstrips and railways, with mortality rates devastatingly high.
Jim believed he survived because of the bond between the marines, who shared food, protected one another and tried to preserve dignity in impossible circumstances.
He secretly hid rice sacks to use as shrouds for men who died, later gathering jungle leaves when the sacks were taken away.
At the end of the war, Jim endured a ten-week journey home. He returned severely underweight, weighing just six stone. He had met Margaret shortly before deployment, and she waited for him throughout the war. They married a year later and remained together for 74 years, until her death in 2020.
Jim continued serving after the war, including time aboard HMS Vanguard, before moving to Salisbury, where they settled.
On his 100th birthday, the then Prince of Wales commissioned his portrait for Buckingham Palace.
In later life he campaigned for respect and protection of the wrecks of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse after illegal salvaging desecrated the sites.
At his memorial, the Exhortation and Last Post will sound in memory of the 842 Royal Navy personnel lost when the two ships sank – and for Jim Wren, who carried their memory for more than eighty years.
