Murdo Macleod

Murdo Macleod, RNR

Murdo Macleod was a sailor of the Royal Naval Reserve whose wartime service carried him from the cold waters of Norway and the North Atlantic to Africa, Burma and the closing operations of the Second World War.

Macleod was serving aboard the County-class heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire when Britain entered the war in September 1939. In the spring of 1940, Devonshire operated off Norway during the Allied campaign against the German invasion.

On 7 June 1940, Macleod was aboard when Devonshire embarked King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olav, members of the Norwegian government and other passengers at Tromsø. With Norway falling under German occupation, the cruiser was ordered to carry the King and his government safely to Britain so that they could continue the struggle from exile.

The mission placed Devonshire close to one of the Royal Navy’s worst wartime disasters. On 8 June, the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau encountered and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and the destroyers HMS Acasta and HMS Ardent. Devonshire received a report of enemy warships nearby, but the cruiser’s overriding responsibility was the safety of the Norwegian King and government. Maintaining radio silence, she continued toward Britain with her 461 passengers. Naval Historical Society of Australia⁠

Macleod subsequently served aboard HMS Alaunia, a Cunard liner taken over by the Admiralty and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. Alaunia performed patrol, convoy and troop-transport duties in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean before being converted into a naval repair ship near the end of the war.

Family history records that Macleod also participated in the operation involving the captured German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. The former Kriegsmarine warship was surrendered to Allied forces in May 1945, transferred to United States control in January 1946 and later taken to Bikini Atoll as a target for the Operation Crossroads atomic-bomb tests. The precise ship and capacity in which Macleod participated in this operation remain to be established from his service record. NavSource Naval History⁠

His medals reflect the remarkable geographical extent and duration of his naval service. He received the 1939–45 Star, Atlantic Star, Africa Star, Burma Star, War Medal 1939–1945 and the Royal Naval Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal. The latter, suspended from its distinctive dark-green ribbon, recognized his prolonged and honourable service in the Royal Naval Reserve.

Decades later, during the 1990s, Macleod’s grandson assembled and framed his medals as a Christmas present. The display preserved more than a group of decorations. It preserved the story of an RNR sailor who helped carry Norway’s King to safety, served across several theatres of war and remained part of the Royal Navy’s work through the final aftermath of the conflict.