SEVENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF SINKING OF HMS ROYAL OAK

That this House notes that October 2009 will be the 70th anniversary of the loss of HMS Royal Oak when the German U-boat, U-47, penetrated the defences protecting Scapa Flow and torpedoed the battleship, sinking HMS Royal Oak with the loss of 833 lives; further notes that many boy sailors aged between 15 and 17 were drowned that night and that, as a result, Churchill ordered that boy sailors were no longer to serve on ships on active service; further notes that HMS Royal Oak still lies in the Scapa Flow with the wreck designated a war grave; further notes the memorial to HMS Royal Oak in nearby St Magnus' Cathedral, Kirkwall, which features a plaque dedicated to those 833 men who lost their lives; further notes that the sinking is remembered every year at a service held over the site of the wreck when Royal Navy divers replace the white ensign that still flies on the submerged wreck; and remembers the sacrifice of those who lost their lives that night in the defence of Britain.