Bernard was born in Walthamstow on 27th February 1926 the son of Edwin Job Babbage and his wife Victoria Annie nee Blower. Bernard was one of seven children born between 1920 and 1935. The 1939 registration of residents shows that Edwin was a garage proprietor in South Woodham Ferrers, the 1937 Kelly’s Directory lists him under motor engineers. Edwin had served as a sapper in the Royal Engineers in the first war landing in France in July 1915 and as a result had been awarded the 1914-15 Star as well as the Victory and British War Medals. He was transferred to reserve in April 1919.
Bernard joined up as a boy seaman in the middle of 1942 when he was sixteen and was serving at HMS St George when he died on 21st January 1944. At that time he was described as Boy Seaman 1st Class. HMS St. George was a shore based training establishment set up on the Isle of Man at Cunningham’s Holiday Camp which had been requisitioned for the duration of hostilities. If Bernard had joined up before the war or even afterwards his initial training would have been at HMS Ganges but HMS St George was set up in 1939 to train boy seamen and was to carry on until the end of the war when training returned to Ganges. Prior to the sinking of HMS Royal Oak in October 1939 at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands by U-47 when 134 boy seamen lost their lives part of the training for boys would have been at sea but following the outcry at the loss of so many young men they would only serve at sea under the age of 18 in exceptional circumstances.
Bernard, at the time of his death in January 1944 was a Boy Seaman 1st Class which indicates that he had served as a Boy Seaman 2nd Class for a minimum of nine months and gained at least one good conduct badge. He died at the Royal Navy Auxiliary Hospital Sherborne.
His address was given as 2 Bridge Cottages, Wickford Road, South Woodham Ferrers, his parents address.
Bernard’s funeral took place on 26th January at Sherborne and he is remembered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. He was interred in the cemetery at Sherborne along with 53 other servicemen.
The newspaper report of his funeral mentions that he died as the result of an accident but that does not tally with the death certificate. The report mentions that three of his brothers were in the forces, one with the Irish Fusiliers and two with the Royal Air Force. The report mentions that he attended schools in Rettendon and Wickford and that he had previously been employed by L Walton a contractor in Woodham Ferrers.