Russell Wilcox was born in Fort William, Ontario on March 16, 1920, the son of Doris Agnes Bole, of Fort William, Ontario. Russell, single at the time, and recording his occupation as farmer, enlisted in the Canadian Navy. He became a member of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve, serving aboard the HMCS Spikenard and attaining the rank of Stoker. The HMCS Spikenard (K 198) was a corvette of the Flower Class, commissioned by the Royal Canadian Navy in December of 1940. In early February of 1942, the Spikenard was part of convoy SC-67, sailing for the British Isles, part of an RCN escort to make the first “Newfie-to-Derry” run that would continue for the next four years (St. John’s, Newfoundland and Londonderry, Northern Ireland).
About 9:30 pm on the night of February 10, 1942, the Spikenard was about 465 nautical miles west of Malin Head Ireland, following a zigzag pattern ahead of the convoy in rough seas. Two torpedoes fired by German U-boat U-136 struck the port side in the bow near the bridge. Almost simultaneously, a torpedo smashed into the nearby tanker Heina. A nearby corvette, Dauphin, saw one explosion and moved toward the position where the Heina was on fire. It took two hours to rescue the Heina survivors from the oily water.
Aboard the Spikenard, fire had broken out, destroying the bridge, the wireless room and one of her lifeboats. Flames then spread to fuel drums aft of the mast, and fire raced up the superstructure and down into the belly of the ship. Men on the mess decks had to fight their way to the forecastle through a curtain of flames. Many of them, groping forward, stumbled into the gaping hole blasted in the deck plates. After a second explosion, with the ship’s whistle set off by the blast, blowing constantly with an eerie shriek, waves engulfed the vessel. The Spikenard sank within five minutes. The other escorts in the group had been caught up chasing contacts and had not known the Spikenard was gone until she had not answered repeated radio calls. By dawn, there was no sign of the missing Spikenard. The commander, four officers and fifty-two of the crew were lost.
Incredibly, eight survivors were picked up clinging from a raft by HMS Gentian about 19 hours after the sinking. The eight survivors, many suffering burns, had picked up two other survivors after the second explosion, but both were so badly injured that they died shortly after being taken aboard. Russell Wilcox was one of the crew members who was lost in the sinking of the HMCS Spikenard. Also on board and lost was Alfred Smedley Kettle, who is also listed on the Sarnia cenotaph. Russell Wilcox’s death certificate simply states for official cause of death, Loss of H.M.C.S. Spikenard, at sea. Twenty-one year old Russell Wilcox has no known grave. His name is inscribed on the Halifax Memorial, Nova Scotia, Canada, Panel 9.
SOURCES: A, B, C, D, E, F, L, P, T, U, X, Z, 2A, 2C, 2D