Wife of Falklands war hero to visit island where he died, 32 years on

Jean Stroud-Mort will bring a single red rose to lie at the memorial tree planted in the Falklands for her husband, Royal Navy steward John Stroud, who died on the HMS Glamorgan in 1982 aged just 20.

On Tuesday she was also presented with a commemorative china plate by the Mayor of Bolton to take on her visit, as a present from the borough in recognition of Mr Stroud’s sacrifice.

Mrs Stroud-Mort has never visited the area where he husband died 33 years ago this year, and his body was buried at sea in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The retired mother-of-three — whose son John Paul was aged just eight months when his father was killed — will be joined on the trip by her husband Lesley Mort. The couple have two daughters.

The Darwen Road resident said: “I have never been ready to go back before but I am now.

“I have mixed emotions about the trip. I think it is something you have to do, when something as tragic.

“John used to always give me a single red rose when he would see me, and now I am going to do the same for him.

“It’s not closure because you never get closure. But I need to go there.

“He was buried soon after he died, and it was very hard. We just didn’t know what was going on.”

Mrs Stroud-Mort says along with the rose, she will bring a wooden cross and laminated picture of Mr Stroud holding his baby son to rest on a tree dedicated to his memory.

She says she has not yet decided whether she wants to see the area where his body was laid to rest, but has been invited to a memorial site for the HMS Glamorgan.

The ship was hit by an Exocet missile fired by the Argentinian navy on June 12, 1982, killing 13 men on board.

Her trip has been funded by the Royal British Legion Benevolent Fund and armed forces charity SSAFA.

The family appeared in The Bolton News in 2007 after they successfully campaigned to get John Stroud’s name engraved on the Dunscar war memorial in Blackburn Road.