Age: 36
21 MAY 1982
CHIEF PETTY OFFICER - AIR ENGINEERING MECHANICIAN 1 FLEET AIR ARM - HMS ARDENT
THE FALKLANDS WAR 1982
The Royal Naval Frigate HMS Ardent was supporting the landing force at San Carlos during the campaign to recover the British South Atlantic dependency of the Falkland Islands following the invasion by Argentina in April 1982. HMS Ardent came under heavy and sustained attack from Argentinian aircraft, and was so severely damaged that she later sank in Falkland Sound, losing more crew members than any other ship in the Falklands War. Chief Petty Officer Allen ‘Mac’ McAuley was serving as a member of the Flight crew of the Lynx helicopter stationed aboard HMS Ardent, and was lost with his ship.
The Western Gazette 28 May 1982: Two men from Yeovil died in the Ardent. They were Chief Petty Officer Allan McAuley, 36, and Lt. Brian Murphy, a flight observer, CPO McAuley, who was an air engineering mechanician working with Lynx aircraft, leaves a wife, Barbara, and two children a boy and a girl. A memorial service for CPO McAuley was held at Yeovilton air station’s Roman Catholic Church yesterday afternoon. The requiem mass was expected to be attended by family and friends, and the station’s Captain Peter Williams and members of the ship’s company of HMS Heron and 815 Squadron Naval Air Squadron.