Occupation

"I believe my father had been in the RNLI since he was young boy. His father was a coxswain on the lifeboat and his brother and an uncle too. They'd been lifeboatmen for most of their lives."

Tony said he can remember waving his father goodbye the day he died, because his family were living at Salarie Corner at the time.

The Alfred and Clara Heath in service in Torbay

Harold Hobbs went down the docks and his father told him they were going to Jersey to pick up the Jersey lifeboat, the Howard D, because the authorities did not want it to fall into the hands of the enemy.

"He went out there and then after they'd got to sea they got near St Aubin's bay and the Germans came over and started to fire machine guns. So my grandfather drove the boat straight into the bay and everyone jumped over the side. When he took a head count he found it was my father who had got a direct shot through the head," said Tony.

"I was at home, as far as I know, with my mother when it happened and she found out."

After Harold Hobbs had been killed, his body was in Jersey but the Germans landed within a day. Tony's mother had to go to the Royal Hotel to see the Commandant to ask permission to bring the body back to Guernsey.

Tony said he also remembers the German air raid on the White Rock. 33 people died, 67 injured and 49 tomato lorries were destroyed when the White Rock was bombed on the 28 June 1940 when the Germans mistook them for ammunition trucks.

Tony saw the planes coming in and the bombs falling. His mother told him later that they should have been on the White Rock as she had a letter from his grandmother, who was already on the mainland, but they could not find it.

"I'd put it in a tin and if she could have found it we could have been on the Rock and we could have been killed," he recalled.

The restored Howard D Jersey lifeboat.

Tony said many people were taken by surprise by the war: "My father was an officer in the Royal Navy reserve and he knew there was going to be a war but he said it should all be over by Christmas. Nobody knew what was going to happen."

"During the time living with my mother I found out my father's story in dribs and drabs. I think they're all heroes," said Tony.

Harold Hobbs is one of the 778 names listed on a memorial at the Poole Headquarters of the RNLI.  It lists those who died in service on lifeboats across the country.  It was unveiled by HRH The Duke of Kent on 3 September 2009.