James Joseph Magennis

He placed his charges below a cruiser, then returned to dive

James Joseph Magennis was born in Belfast on 27 October 1919 and grew up in the Majorca Street area. He attended St Finian's school before joining the Royal Navy in 1935, aged fifteen. After training at HMS Ganges, he served aboard Royal Sovereign, Enterprise and Hermes and became an able seaman in 1938.

During the Second World War he served aboard the destroyer Kandahar in the Norwegian and Mediterranean campaigns. He survived her loss after she struck a mine off Libya in December 1941. He subsequently entered submarine service and volunteered for the X-craft programme, qualifying as a diver.

In September 1943 he served in the passage crew of X7 during Operation Source against Tirpitz in Norway. His contribution brought a Mention in Despatches, represented by a bronze oak leaf on his War Medal.

By 1945 he was the diver aboard XE3, commanded by Lieutenant Ian Fraser. On 31 July they attacked the Japanese cruiser Takao in the Johor Strait near Singapore. The midget submarine became jammed beneath the cruiser, leaving little room to open the diver's hatch. Magennis squeezed through and worked beneath the fouled, sloping hull to secure his limpet mines. An oxygen leak increased the danger, but he placed his full load before returning exhausted.

When an external carrier failed to release, Magennis volunteered to dive again rather than leave the task to a less experienced man. After seven minutes he freed it, allowing XE3 to withdraw. Both he and Fraser received the Victoria Cross. King George VI presented their crosses at Buckingham Palace on 11 December 1945.

Magennis married Edna Skidmore in 1946 and remained in the Navy until 1949. He returned to Belfast, where civilian life and finances proved difficult. He sold his Victoria Cross in the early 1950s, but it was returned to him. In 1955 he moved with his family to Yorkshire, working first near Doncaster and later in the Bradford area.

His medal group includes the 1953 Coronation and 1977 Silver Jubilee medals. He died at Halifax Infirmary on 12 February 1986. His Victoria Cross and accompanying medals subsequently entered the Lord Ashcroft Collection.

Official Victoria Cross citation Leading Seaman Magennis served as Diver in His Majesty's Midget Submarine XE-3 for her attack on 31st July 1945, on a Japanese cruiser of the Atago class. Owing to the fact that XE-3 was tightly jammed under the target the diver's hatch could not be fully opened, and Magennis had to squeeze himself through the narrow space available. He experienced great difficulty in placing his limpets on the bottom of the cruiser owing both to the foul state of the bottom and to the pronounced slope upon which the limpets would not hold. Before a limpet could be placed therefore Magennis had thoroughly to scrape the area clear of barnacles, and in order to secure the limpets he had to tie them in pairs by a line passing under the cruiser keel. This was very tiring work for a diver, and he was moreover handicapped by a steady leakage of oxygen which was ascending in bubbles to the surface. A lesser man would have been content to place a few limpets and then to return to the craft. Magennis, however, persisted until he had placed his full outfit before returning to the craft in an exhausted condition. Shortly after withdrawing Lieutenant Fraser endeavoured to jettison his limpet carriers, but one of these would not release itself and fall clear of the craft. Despite his exhaustion, his oxygen leak and the fact that there was every probability of his being sighted, Magennis at once volunteered to leave the craft and free the carrier rather than allow a less experienced diver to undertake the job. After seven minutes of nerve-racking work he succeeded in releasing the carrier. Magennis displayed very great courage and devotion to duty and complete disregard for his own safety.