John Stephen Edward Greenland was born on 21 January 1921 the youngest of the three children of Frank Harold Greenland (1875-1930) and Alice Elizabeth Greenland née Chapman (1896-1974). His birth was registered in the 1st quarter of 1921 in the Paddington Registration District, London. On 27 February 1921 he was baptised in St Saviour's Church, Warwick Avenue, Paddington, where in the baptismal register his family are shown as living at 342 Harrow Road, Paddington and that his father was a postman.
Electoral registers in 1927 and 1929 list his parents at 62 Pleasance Road, Putney, London, SW15 and these registers and probate records confirm that his father resided in 1930 at 90 Leigh Gardens, Kensal Rise, Middlesex (now Greater London). On 6 November 1937 he was appointed as a postman in the London Postal Region and the confirms his appointment a temporary postman-messenger with effect from 30 November 1937. In the 1939 England and Wales Register he is described as a Post Office messenger, living at 149 Kings Road, Harrow, Middlesex (now Greater London), with his mother who by now had been remarried to an Albert E. Woods, and his two elder siblings: Frank William Greenland (1917-1989) a Post Office sorter and Winifred Mabel Greenland (1919-2003) a ledger clerk.
He joined the Royal Navy, service number P/JX30053, and on 23 October 1943 he was serving aboard H.M.S. Charybdis, a Dido Class Cruiser, when it was partaking in Operation Tunnel, trying to intercept a German blockade runner, the Munsterland, in the English Channel off the northern coast of Brittany, France. H.M.S. Charybdis was hit on the port side by two torpedoes fired by the German torpedo boats T-23, under the command of Friedrich-Karl Paul, and T-27. The German force escaped unharmed. H.M.S. Charybdis sank within half an hour with the loss of over 400 men. Only four officers and 103 ratings survived. He died aged 22 years and as his body was never recovered he is , on the Clarence Esplanade, Southsea, Portsmouth, Southsea, PO5 3SB.
He is shown as 'GREENLAND J.S.E.' on the Western Postal District war memorial in Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the and on .
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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