Source: Leicestershire War Memorials Project.
James Wiiliam (Jimmy) Fairbrother was the son of William Henry and Alice Irene Mary Fairbrother of Waltham on the Wolds. He was on the crew of HMS Royal Oak when it was torpedoed and sank by a German U-boat on 14/10/1939. He was 17 years old when he died.

At 0116 hours on 14 October 1939 the German submarine U-47 fired a spread of three torpedoes at HMS Royal Oak and the British seaplane tender HMS Pegasus lying at anchor in the harbour of Scapa Flow, then turned around and fired a stern torpedo at 0121 hours. Prien claimed a hit on the seaplane tender, misidentified as HMS Repulse, but one of the torpedoes apparently hit the starboard anchor chain of HMS Royal Oak and both targets were undamaged.
At 0123 hours, the U-boat fired a second spread of three torpedoes of which two hit HMS Royal Oak on the starboard side and caused a magazine to blow up. The battleship rolled over and sank in 19 minutes. 833 of the crew were killed. 386 of the 420 survivors, including the Commanding Officer, were rescued by the drifter HMS Daisy II which had been alongside as tender (uboat.net)
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Submitted by J. Parrott, 2018