SHE WAS the biggest and most iconic British warship of her time.

The mighty HMS Hood, which took part in two Spithead reviews in 1935 and 1937, was the most powerful military vessel in the world for more than 20 years.

But 860ft battlecruiser was sunk by the German ship Bismarck in May1941 with the loss of more than 1,400 lives.

They included the officer in overall command, Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland, who used to worship at St John’s Church at Boldre in the New Forest.

After the war his widow, Phyllis Holland, arranged for a memorial to be established at the church, where an annual service of commemoration has been held ever since.

But the service is moving online for the second year running as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Organiser Nigel Henley said: "It's with much regret, but a certain inevitability, that we have decided to cancel the ‘live’ service currently scheduled for May 16.

"We plan instead to produce a ‘virtual’ service for online viewing.

"Details will follow in due course, at which time we hope also to provide a date for 2022 when, pandemic permitting, normal service should be resumed."

HMS Hood sank in just three minutes, her bow almost vertical as it disappeared below the waves in the Denmark Strait.

The three survivors included Ted Briggs, who lived at Fareham and died aged 85 at the Queen Alexandra Hospital, Cosham, on October 4 2008.

Towards the end of her life Phyllis Holland moved to St Thomas Park, Lymington. She died in 1983 and is buried at St John’s, where a memorial commemorates her life and that of her husband and son.

The HMS Hood memorial includes an illustrated Book of Remembrance listing the names of the 1,415 crew killed.

It also features an oil painting of HMS Hood by Montagu Dawson and the artist's original mould of a zinc memorial plaque laid on the wreck in 2001.