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William James Stabb was born on 1909 in Brixham South Devon to parents William & Beatrice Stabb(nee Jose) Bill,as he was known, father served in WW1 and upon his return was committed to sanitorium with mental problems(Probably shell shock as we now know it). THis left Beatrice with 4 sons,Bill and his brothers,Frank Ralph and Clifford, with no father and no husband. As was common in those days, Bill the oldest joined the Royal Navy with his pay being sent home to his mother to help support the family. In fact Bill didnt have access to his pay unitl he was engaged to Elsie Salsbury(Brixham). Upon entering the Navy Bill was assgned to a 3 masted training ship(Old Galleon) in Devonport, Plymouth. After his basic seaman training of knots, navigation, marching etc, Bill was ordered to WW1 dreadnaught battle ship and then to HMS Lion a 1930s battle cruiser. As Bill was getting married and needed more money and also as he was quite short, 5'4", Bill decided to transfer to submarines.

William's naval carrear spanned from the 1920s to 1946 for most of which he served in the Royal Navy Submarine fleet. He served on three submarines during the war years, HMS Severn, HMS Templar and HMS Tuna and saw action in the atlantic, the Mederterainian and the Far East and achieved the rank of Chief Petty Officer, the highest rank achievable by an enlisted man. Bill, as he was know to his friends and family, was decorated on several occasions for galantry, his highest award being the DSM and bar. While serving in subs, Bill as CPO took part in the Cockershell heroes raid(operation frankton)delivering Royal Marines to the river Geronde in France who paddled upstream to the port of Bordou a placed limpet mines on the ships at anchor sinking them in the port. Only 2 of the Marines survied this raid & one of them Bill Sparkes was reunited with William Stabb at a re-enactment in PLymouth sound in the early 1970s. The Cocershell Heroes raid was the catalist to the formation of the now famous Special Boat Squadron, SBS the Royal Marine equivalent of the army's SAS.