William George Hamblin, Leading Stoker (P/KX 77972), was born in Reading, Berkshire on March 11th, 1909. He was the eldest son of William Hamblin, a brewery worker, who died in 1913, and his wife, Annie, née Richardson, who remarried in 1915. Before joining the Navy in 1927, at the age of 18, William was working in a brewery. In 1937, he married Ellen Rose Maslin, with whom he had one son. He joined HMS Dunedin on November 11th, 1938.