Warrant Officer H.B.J. Button DSM RN, the hero on Armistice day 1942 by saving the lives of others when HMS Hecla was torpedoed

A HARD FOUGHT SHIP

The story of HMS Venomous

Warrant Officer H.J.B. Button DSM RN
the hero who lost his own life saving the lives of others on Armistice Day 1942

Herbert James Brown Button was born in 1915 but the father's name was not given on the birth certificate and he may have been killed in the trenches before he could marry the mother of his unborn child. Herbert James Brown was adopted as a child and joined the Royal Navy as a boy sailor before the war. He met his future wife, Florence Mary Nunn, while visiting relatives of his mother in Hastings, and she moved to Portsmouth to be near him when his ship was in harbour. He was a strong swimmer and was photographed on the beach at Hastings.

Warrant Officer H.J.B. Button and Florence Mary Nunn

Jimmie Button on Hastings beach (left) and with his new wife, Florence Mary Button (nee Nunn)
Courtesy of Ken Nunn

He won his DSM while serving as the senior Anti Submarine Detector (ASDIC operator) on HMS Antelope which sank U-41 in February 1940. The navigating officer, Lt Michael Marwood DSC RN, described the action on the BBC Peoples War web site. On the 17 March 1941 he was promoted to Warrant Officer and posted to HMS Tyne, an identical sister ship to HMS Hecla. In April 1942 he was at HMS Egret, Western Approaches HQ in Liverpool, and may have met and impressed Cdr H. Falcon-Steward the CO of HMS Venomous. He joined Venomous at Londonderry later that month.

Harry Haddon, an AB on HMS Venomous, described what happened when an overcrowded and very unstable whaler from the destroyer escort, HMS Marne, attempted to come alongside Venomous. Jimmie Button dived in with a rope to bring it within reach of the scrambling nets. The men on the near side lunged at the ropes and the whaler capsized trapping those on the other side. Jimmie Button dived beneath the overturned whaler to pull them free but many drowned. During that long night Jimmie Button dived in repeatedly until he was totally exhausted.

The next day he took to his bunk but on the 13 November whilst en-route from Casablanca to Gibraltar he summoned the strength to don his uniform and attend the burial at sea of those who died and was photographed glancing down with his hat off by AB Cyril Hely. Jimmie Button was liked and respected by the men on Venomous. Cyril Hely wrote on the back of his photograph “The officer in foreground is the one that died a few days afterwards, he was a fine bloke too.”

Jimmie Button died at Algiers two weeks later on the 27 November and is buried in the Dely Ibrahim War Cemetery. His young widow married Tom Wilson, an army officer, and in 1948 they emigrated to Australia where they had three children who live there today. Years later on a Mediterranean cruise they visited the grave of her first husband outside Algiers. She died in Australia two years ago.

The menu was designed by George Male whose life was saved by Jimmie Button
Courtesy of George Male

Warrant Officer H.J.B. Button DSM RN was the only person to die on Venomous and his sacrifice was remembered by the survivors and his shipmates at the 50th anniversary dinner of the HMS Hecla, HMS Marne and HMS Venomous Association in 1992.

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A Hard Fought Ship contains the most detailed account of the loss of HMS Hecla yet published
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