Darryl Marvin Cope

Darryl Marvin Cope (Daz to his friends) was born on 27th of May 1961, the second son of Marge and Don. He had a brother Steven (1960) and a sister Rebecca (1963) and was educated at Stourport-on-Severn Junior School, and then Hartlebury Grammar School.

Darryl joined the Royal Navy at 16 ½, and after his initial training at HMS Raleigh in Cornwall, went on to do Catering & Accountancy courses at HMS Pembroke (Chatham) and HMS Daedalus near Portsmouth.

The Darryl Cope Memorial Trophy
Awarded annually to the outstanding catering Trainee

The Darryl Cope Memorial Trophy
A silver platter awarded to the current Trophy holder

He then joined his first ship, the Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield in July 1979. During the refit of ‘The Shiny Sheff’ he was seconded for a tour of the Mediterranean onboard the assault ship HMS Intrepid. When back in HMS Sheffield he sailed, on November 19th 1981, for a patrol of the Arabian Gulf.

After taking part in a major Mediterranean exercise, and four days before her planned return to Portsmouth, the ship was diverted to the South Atlantic on April 2nd 1982, within hours of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. While on forward radar picket duty about 70 miles south and east of Stanley, on Sunday May 4th, the Type 42 destroyer was struck amidships by an Exocet missile fired from Argentine Naval Super Etendard aircraft. Darryl’s body was not recovered. The burned-out hulk sank under tow six days later, and he lies with his shipmates in deep water at 53-04S° 56-56W°.