CROSSING THE BAR - SUMMARY TRIBUTES AND
OBITUARIES OF FLEET AIR ARM PERSONNEL
Kenneth Daniel Benner, OMM,CD, RCN
Ken served over 40 years in the Canadian Forces , with his early years spent
in the Canadian Fleet Air Arm.
Source: Obituary 13 Feb., 2000
Sir Reginald FB BENNETT
Surgeon lieutenant commander. After he won his wings with the Fleet Air Arm
in 1941, he became a flying medical officer in East Africa
and Ceylon.
Source: The Guardian, 22 January,
2001
Kaj BIRKSTED
WWII fighter ace (pilot in Royal Danish Navy, Royal Norwegian Air force and
RAF. Chief of Staff when Royal Danish Airforce established)
Source: The Times, 6 Feb. 1996
Bowden BLACK
1944 Bowden was in Canada
on flying training for the Fleet Air Arm.
Source: Online June 1997 Newsletter Karabiner Mountaineering Club, Manchester
Rear-Admiral Arthur Seymour 'Ben' BOLT.
Qualified as an observer in 1931, then served on HMS Glorious & HMS
Courageous. CO 812 Naval Air Squadron 1939. Cape Matapan
on March 28 1941. Was to
have commanded HMS Smiter in the East Indies Fleet in 1945, but war against Japan
ended before he could take up the appointment
Source: Website: FAMOUS BOLTs in the World.
The
Daily Telegraph, 2 April, 1994
Commander James BOND (007)
Although a fictional character, James Bond 007 Secret Agent is perhaps one
of the most well known Fleet air Arm officers. He joined the Royal Navy in 1941
as an Lt RNVR, soon promoted to Commander, served on board HMS Ark Royal, and
at the end of the war he joined the Secret Service MI6. The Author, John
Gardner, in his 1989 Bond novel "Win, Lose or Die", which features
Bond returning to active service, and him serving on the aircraft carrier HMS
Invincible after gaining a promotion to Captain.
Source: In the novels, Bond's naval career is detailed in his obituary in
"You Only Live Twice".
Also see Commander Bond and
compilation by A Kadjeski: Email: a.kadjeski@paonline.com
Commander Jason BORTHWICK RVNR
Fighter Direction Officer on wartime aircraft carriers). Joined RNAS
Yeovilton 1941, then pioneered Naval Fighter Direction, on HMNS Victorious in
Operation Pedestal. Served on Admiral Ramsay's staff for the D-Day landings in Normandy
in June 1944. Then organise fighter direction in Indian Ocean
operations, including the invasion of Rangoon
in May 1945.
Source: The
Daily Telegraph, 14 February 1998
J BRAZIER
He qualified as a pharmacist at the College of the Pharmaceutical Society, London
University, in 1936 and spent four
years in the Fleet Air Arm during the war.
Source: Hampshire Chronicle.Friday, 28
January, 2000
Peter BROOKS
Aeronautical engineer and author. Test pilot for naval aircraft.
Source: The Times 3 February, 1996.
A BURNS
John BURY OBE
A renowned theatre designer. Before opting for the theatre he served in the
wartime Fleet Air Arm.
Source: The
Daily Telegraph 15 November, 2000
Guardian Newspaper, November 2000
Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph James BURY
Officer in all three fighting services who managed to surface from an
aircraft 50ft beneath the Yellow Sea. In 1941 he became
an Air Liaison Officer with the RAF, and later had the same role with the Fleet
Air Arm, enabling him to claim to have been in all three fighting services. Air
Observer for the Fleet Air Arm during the Korean War, HMS Glory.
Source: The Guardian 12 November,
1997
The
Daily Telegraph, 8 November 1997
Rear Admiral Dennis Royle Farquharson CAMBELL
Inventor of the angled flight deck that revolutionised aircraft carriers,
preventing many crashes and deaths: Qualified as a pilot 1931, then flew Fairey
Flycatchers with 401 and 405 Flights from the carriers Furious and Glorious. In
March 1939 he got his first command, 803 squadron , flying Blackburn Skuas from
Ark Royal. Subsequently a test pilot at Boscombe Down until March 1942 when he
was appointed Commander (Air) in HMS Argus which was ferrying replacement
aircraft to Malta. Carried out Firebrand first deck landing trials on board
Illustrious in February 1943. In 1943,Washington
DC as Senior Naval Representative to the
British Air Commission.
Source: The
Daily Telegraph 15 April 2000
The Guardian, April 2000
Vice-Admiral Sir Stephen CARLILL
Last British commander of Indian Navy (1955-58)
The Times, 14 February 1996
The
Daily Telegraph, 17 February 1996
Commander Peter 'Hoagy' CARMICHAEL RN
Fleet Air Arm pilot for shooting down a)
Fleet Air Arm officer who in a dog-fight over Korea was the first and only
Fleet Air Arm pilot of a piston-engined aircraft, Sea Fury, to shoot down a
jet-engined aircraft, a MiG during the Korean War whilst operating with
802 squadron from HMS Ocean in August 1952.
Joined the Navy as a naval airman in 1942, went to Pensacola
in America for
his flying training, first action in May 1944, flying Seafires with 889
Squadron from HMS Atheling in the Bay of Bengal. With
1834 squadron, HMS Victorious took part in strikes on oil refineries in Sumatra
in January 1945, then involved in operations against Japanese airfields in the
Sakishima Gunto off Okinawa in April and May, and in the final operations with
the US 3rd Fleet against mainland Japan in July and August, 1945. Post-war
President of the HMS Ocean Association.
Source: The
Daily Telegraph 9 August 1997
Lt-Commander John CASSON
Fleet Air Arm squadron commander who as a PoW in Stalag Luft III proved an
effective codemaster for MI9 and helped to plan the Great Escape, later a
theatre director, and the author of Lewis and Sybil (1972). In 1931,
volunteered for flying, joined No 22 Naval Pilots Course at RAF Leuchars in
January 1932. By 1934, on HMS Eagle with 803 naval air squadron, subsequently
HMS Glorious as Senior Pilot of 802 Squadron. From 1937 to 1938 cruiser HMS
Glasgow's Walrus amphibian in the Home Fleet. In command of 803 squadron,
flying Blackburn Skua from Ark Royal in May 1940 in the Norwegian campaign.
Took part on 13 June 13 in an attack by Ark Royal on the German battlecruisers
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in Trondheim
harbour. Casson and his observer, Peter Fanshawe, attacked by an Me-109and
forced into a fjord. POW Stalag Luft III, famous for the Great Escape, which
both Casson and Fanshawe helped to plan. As a PoW, working for MI9, and
theatre. Casson arrived home on VE Day May 1945. After a short
appointment at HMS Wagtail, a naval air station near Ayr,
he resigned from the Navy in 1946
The
Daily Telegraph: 4 March 2000
Major Vernon Beauclerk George "Cheese" CHEESMAN
Flying Marine who relished paying back the Japanese after seeing them
machine-gun survivors in the water. One of the most highly decorated members of
that rare breed - the flying Royal Marine. In 1941, serving in 710 Naval Air
Squadron, flying Walrus amphibian aircraft from the seaplane carrier Albatross.
On 14 January, the cargo-liner Eumaeus sunk, Cheesman rescued wounded. In
July 1941, Walrus pilot on the cruiser HMS Cornwall, and survived when sunk by
Japanese carrier-based bombers. After undergoing a conversion course at the Fighter
School, HMS Heron, Yeovilton,
joined 824 squadron, a composite squadron of Swordfish and Sea Hurricanes, as
Fighter Flight Commander. In October 1943 he embarked in the escort carrier
Striker. In February 1944, took command of 1770 Squadron, the first to be
equipped with the new Fairey Firefly. From HMS Indefatigable took part in the
Fleet Air Arm strikes against the battleship Tirpitz in July-August 1944.
Indefatigable sailed for the Far East in November
1944. On 4 January, 1945,
1770 Squadron took part in Operation Lentil, a strike involving more than 90
aircraft on the oil refinery at Pangkalan Brandan in northern Sumatra.
The squadron's last operation under Cheesman was Iceberg, the invasion of Okinawa,
which began on April 1 1945.
Source: The
Daily Telegraph, 26 June 1999
Captain John Clayton COCKBURN
Fleet Air Arm pilot who provided cover at the Salerno
landings from a makeshift runway in a tomato field. Won the DSC for his
leadership of the shore-based Fleet Air Arm fighters at Salerno
in September 1943. First joined the Fleet Air Arm in early 1930s, flying Fairey
Flycatcher biplanes from the carrier Hermes and from the cruisers Cumberland,
Suffolk and Kent. In the late
1930s, Cockburn served with 800 Squadron,on HMS Courageous and then with 802
squadron on HMS Glorious. In March 1939, Cockburn had his first command, 718 squadron,
and at the end of the year took command of 804 squadron on HMS Glorious, taking
part in the Norwegian campaign in the spring of 1940. In September 1940, took
part in the Battle of Britain, based at Wick, under 13 Group RAF. In June 1941
as CO formed 881 squadron, HMS Illustrious, and took part in Operation
Ironclad, the invasion of Madagascar
in May 1942. Cockburn then joined the carrier Argus as Lt Commander (Flying).
She took part in the Harpoon convoy to Malta
in June 1942 and the Torch landings in North Africa in
November. After that, Cockburn's final wartime appointment was as the commander
of HMS Rajaliya, the naval air station at Puttalam in Ceylon.
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 28 August 1999
Captain Hugh Charles Bainbridge COLERIDGE
One of the Navy's foremost exponents of anti-submarine warfare, though it
was in the Korean War, when there was no enemy submarine activity, that he won
the DSO. From 1941 to 1943 Coleridge was on the instructing staff at Osprey and
at HMS Nimrod, the anti-submarine school at Campbelltown, Argyll. He then
joined the light fleet carrier Colossus in 1944 as Executive Officer. In
September 1945 he took part in the repatriation of PoWs from Formosa
and Shanghai.
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 4 March 2000
Lt Commander John COOPER RNVR
Fleet Air Arm pilot awarded DSC and Bar
Source: The Times, February 1998
Vice-Admiral Sir Peter COMPSTON
Naval air operations from the Second World War to Suez.
Commissioned into the RAF in 1936, went to Iraq
1937 as part of the RAF presence there, transferring to RN in 1938. In 1939,
served with 810 Squadron on HMS Ark Royal, and took part in the Norwegain
campaign. Subsequently test pilot at the RNAS Donibristle until appointed in
April 1942 to the battleship Anson, Admiral Bruce Fraser's flagship in the Home
Fleet. In June 1943, HMS Cormorant II, Gibraltar, thence HMS Vengeance in
October 1944, followed by a shore appointment at Middle Wallop before
appointment in the Far East. He saw out the war organising mobile naval air
bases (MONABs) for the Pacific theatre. In 1945 Compston transferred to a
regular naval commission and joined the carrier HMS Warrior, at that time
serving with the Royal Canadian Navy.
Source: The Times 19, September, 2000
Air Marshal Alan DAVIES RAF
Involved with the introduction of the Shackleton and Nimrod as maritime
reconnaissance aircraft
Source: The Times, Febraury 1998
Colonel Bernard William Bill DE COURCY-IRELAND
Commando whose unit captured the German Navy's records, won the DSC while
commanding 30th Assault Unit in the final months of the war in Europe
in 1945. Joining the Royal Marines as a probationary subaltern in September
1928, served in the battleship Royal Oak
from 1931 until 1933, when he went to RAF Leuchars for flying training, gaining
his wings in 1934. Served in 810 and 820 squadrons, with HMS Glorious then HMS
Courageous from 1935 to 1937. In May 1937, he flew the lead aircraft in the
Fleet Air Arm Fly Past at King George VI's Coronation Review at Spithead.
De Courcy-Ireland reverted to Corps duty in October 1939 and served afloat in
the battleship Warspite and the depot ship Maidstone
until October 1939.
Source: The
Daily Telegraph 31 July 1999
Lady Rimma DURLACHER (widow of Admiral Sir and Fifth Sea Lord
Laurence " Laurie" Durlacher, RN)
Russian emigrée who became a pillar of the British community on the Riviera,
the widow of Admiral Sir Laurence Durlacher. In 1933, she met Lieutenant
Commander Durlacher, then a flag lieutenant and signals officer in the 3rd
Cruiser Squadron. They were married in England
the next year. After the war, she followed her husband on postings to Malta
and the Far East, made friends with the local people and
helped to support the families of junior officers and other ranks from all
three services with practical advice and hospitality. Lady Durlacher never
fully recovered from Sir Laurence's death in 1986.
Source: Daily
Telegraph 12 April 1997
Peter Richard Walter EARL
Naval helicopter pilot and industrialist. Helicopter pilot who flew almost
every day for three weeks in the desperate attempt to save victims of the Dutch
floods of 1953. He was accepted, and six months into an engineering degree at Manchester
and initial training in Cambridge,
he was sent to South Africa
under the Empire Training Scheme. He obtained his wings in 1944 and became a
flying instructor, transferring to the Fleet Air Arm in 1945. He joined 766
Squadron at Rattray, where he familiarised on Fireflies and made his first deck
landings. Successfully completing his training he soon joined 795 and then 814
squadrons.
Daily
Telegraph, 5 December, 2000
Commander Charles ECKERSLEY-MASLIN RN
Aviator who served in the Army, RAF, Royal Irish Constabulary and Colonial
police forces before joining the RN.
Source: The Times 11 July 1997
Lt Commander Douggie ELLIOTT RN
Pioneer of RN's use of helicopters
Source: The Times, January 1997
Admiral Sir Leslie Derek EMPSON RN
Naval aviator, Second Sea Lord,1971-74, and Vice-Admiral of the United
Kingdom, 1986-88: Fleet Air Arm officer who rose from the lower deck to the
highest rank and executed 782 deck landings without a single mishap: He joined
the lower deck of the Navy as a Naval Airman 2nd Class in April 1940, and
retired 36 years later as a full Admiral, having been the first ex-RNVR officer
to command a fleet aircraft carrier and having occupied several of the top
Fleet Air Arm appointments. Empson gained his wings at RAF Netheravon in
November 1940, and was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant RNVR. After courses at
HMS Jackdaw, the naval air station at Crail in Fife, and
in deck landing at HMS Condor, at Arbroath, he was appointed to 814 squadron in
the carrier Hermes in the Indian Ocean. Empson was one
of a naval draft of officers and men who sailed in April 1941 in SS City of
Nagpur, bound for Bombay, but the ship was torpedoed, shelled and sunk by U-75
Empson was picked up by the destroyer Hurricane. In December 1941, Empson
joined 813 squadron who embarked in the carrier Eagle in January 1942 and
sailed for Gibraltar. They rejoined Eagle to deliver
Spitfires to Malta
in March and May 1942, and to take part in the Harpoon convoy to Malta
in June. The squadron disembarked again after Harpoon, and ashore when Eagle
was sunk. In November, a detachment of 813, which included Empson, went to North
Africa to take part in the Torch landings. Empsonserved with 813
until May 1943. Empson was rested from front line flying and given an
appointment training telegraphist-air-gunners with 755 squadron at HMS Kestrel,
Worthy Down. He then trained as a deck landing control officer
("batsman"). In April 1944, he joined the carrier Argus, where he
flew a variety of aircraft with 768 squadron and spent short periods in the
carriers Ravager, Trumpeter, Pretoria
Castle and Biter when they were
training batsmen. In 1944 Empson accepted a permanent commission as a
Lieutenant RN. In October, as an Acting Lt Cdr, he was appointed Lt Cdr (Flying)
to the new light fleet carrier Vengeance to join
the 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron in the British Pacific Fleet in July. She
took part in the reoccupation of Hong Kong after VJ Day.
Empson had his first command, 767 squadron, in 1946, based at HMS Fulmar, the Deck
Landing Training School
at Milltown, near Lossiemouth.
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 27 September 1997
Andrew FAULDS
Theatre actor and wartime aviator. After serving in the Fleet Air Arm,
Andrew was invited to Stratford by
Robert Atkins in 1944, for the first of his four seasons at the theatre; the
last was in 1956, Andrew was in Spain
at the time making a film with Orson Welles, The Chimes at Midnight.
The Guardian 8 June, 2000
Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Carteret FLETCHER RAF
Fighter pilot who scrambled his Hurricane squadron to take on a mass of
Japanese aircraft over Ceylon:
Born in Durban, South
Africa, and brought up in Southern
Rhodesia. Led a Hurricane fighter squadron against overwhelming
Japanese air attacks in the desperate and costly defence of Ceylon
in 1942. A total of 30 Hurricanes from 258 and 30 Squadrons and six Fleet Air
Arm fighters had engaged the enemy. Heavily outnumbered, and at a tactical
disadvantage, only 15 Hurricanes and two Fulmars survived the air battle.
Moreover, six Fleet Air Arm Swordfish torpedo-bombers preparing to attack the
Japanese fleet were shot down.
Daily
Telegraph, 16 January 1999
Commander Mavourn Baldwin Philip FRANCKLIN
Was the pilot of the Walrus amphibian aircraft in the cruiser Effingham,
flagship of Admiral the Earl of Cork and Orrery, the Commander-in-Chief, in the
Norwegian campaign in the spring of 1940.When the Allies withdrew from Norway
in June, Francklin had a very lucky escape. He was ordered to land his Walrus
on the carrier Glorious on 7 June, but was diverted to Ark Royal instead.
Glorious was sunk by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, with great loss of life, the
next day.
He went to Dartmouth in 1926. In
1935, he served as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert. He
took part in King George V's Silver Jubilee Fleet Review at Spithead.
In 1938 volunteering to train as a Fleet Air Arm pilot, serving in the cruiser
Glasgow at Scapa Flow until starting his flying course,
getting his wings in 1939. From December 1940 to 1942, he flew from the
cruisers Shropshire and Dorsetshire, escorting convoys
in the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic
and off the North Cape of Norway. From 1942-43, commanded 764 squadron, based
at HMS Daedalus I, at Lawrenny Ferry, Pembrokeshire, as Chief Flying Instructor
of the advanced Naval Seaplane School. In August 1943, Francklin joined the
Airfields and Carrier Requirements Department of the Admiralty. He ended the
war flying Fairey Barracuda torpedo-bombers from HMS Gannet, the air station at
Eglinton.
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 23 October 1999
Michael Trevor FULLER
Won the DSC as a Fleet Air Arm pilot for his part in Operation Dukedom, the
hunt for the Japanese heavy cruiser Haguro in the Indian Ocean
in May 1945, then a lieutenant commander, RNVR, and CO of 851 squadron, from
the escort carrier Emperor in the East Indies Fleet.
Fleet Air Arm pilot who sighted a Japanese cruiser and gave the signal that led
to its sinking. His flight of 530 miles, the longest attacking round trip
of any carrier-borne Fleet Air Arm aircraft during the war, was also the only
dive-bombing attack made by British aircraft on a major enemy warship at sea.
Haguro, only slightly damaged, carried on towards Singapore,
but was surrounded and sunk by the gunfire and torpedoes of the 26th Destroyer
Flotilla in a night attack in the Malacca
Strait early on 16 May.
Fuller joined the Navy as an ordinary seaman in May 1940, sent to HMS St
Vincent, Gosport, as a naval airman. He earned his wings
and was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant (A), RNVR. In May 1941, he joined his
first squadron, 755, training TAGs at HMS Kestrel, Worthy Down. Then joined 825
Squadron, HMS Victorious and took part in the hunt for the Bismarck.
Transferred at short notice to 820 squadron in Ark Royal. In February 1942, 820
joined the carrier Formidable for operations in the Indian Ocean,
including the invasion of Madagascar,
and in November provided anti-submarine cover for the Torch landings in North
Africa. Fuller then went home to serve as Senior Pilot at RNAS
Machrihanish. Then appointed CO of 851 squadron, HMS Shah, transferring to HMS
Emperor for Operation Dukedom and covered the invasion of Rangoon,
for which Fuller was mentioned in despatches.
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 29 November 1997
Commander Richard Exton “Jimmy” GARDNER,
OBE, DSC, RNVR
Naval pilot who flew Hurricanes in an RAF squadron under Douglas Bader
during the Battle of Britain: He learned to fly before the war, joining
the Navy and starting flying training as a leading airman at Gravesend
in May 1939. He was commissioned as a Sub Lt RNVR in September 1939, got his
wings at RAF Netheravon in April 1940, and joined 760 naval air squadron at HMS
Raven, Eastleigh. In June, 1940 Gardner
went to No 7 Operational Training Unit at RAF Hawarden, in north Wales,
for an intensive two-week course in flying Spitfires and Hurricanes. Early in
July, joined 242 Squadron RAF, flying Hurricane 1s under the celebrated
Douglas Bader. In December, he joined 252 Squadron, Coastal Command at
Chivenor, and flew with them until April 1941, when he returned to the Navy,
joining 807 naval air squadron, flying Fairey Fulmars from the carrier Ark
Royal in the Mediterranean. In May, Ark Royal escorted
the Tiger convoy, carrying tanks and Hurricanes through the Mediterranean
to Alexandria. He was awarded the
DSC for his service in Tiger. Gardner's
final tally as a fighter pilot was six destroyed, four shared and one
"probable". After Ark Royal was sunk in November 1941, 807 joined the
carrier Argus for convoy duties in the western Mediterranean.
In April 1942, Gardner was
appointed as an instructor to 760 Squadron, part of the Fleet
Fighter School,
at HMS Heron, Yeovilton. In July 1942, Gardner
was CO of 899 squadron flying Fulmars from HMS Greve, at Dekheila and Syria
to operate with 260 Wing RAF in the Western
Desert until disbanding in February
1943. In May 1943, he was appointed to CO of 736 Squadron, flying Seafires from
Yeovilton at the School of Air
Combat (later School
of Naval Air Warfare), teaching the
latest air combat techniques to experienced naval fighter pilots. Gardner
remained Chief Fighter Instructor for the School
of Naval Warfare until he left the
Navy in March 1946, and was appointed OBE for his service there in 1945.
Daily
Telegraph Saturday 24 April 1999
Lt Commander Sir William Frances Cuthbert Garthwaite 2nd Bt, DSc and Bar.
A cross between Bond and Biggles: He started to fly in 1928 obtaining a
private pilots licence, joining the Fleet Air Arm when war broke out, he
subsequently took part in the attack on Bismarck
from HMS Victorious in May 1941, he was awarded the DSC. His second DSC was won
in Malta with
830 squadron during night attacks on Rommels forces. In command of 842 squadron
in December 1942 and eventually became First Chief Pilot to the Admiralty.
Source: The Times, 1 January 1994
Vice Admiral Sir Donald GIBSON, KCB, DSC, RN
Flag Officer Naval Air Command, 1965-68. Naval aviator . Leaving British
India in 1937, applied for RNR training. At that time, a shortage
of regular recruits prompted the transfer to the regular Navy of 100 RNR
officers, the “hungry hundred”, of which Gibson was one.
In 1938 he specialised as a pilot at the fighter school at Donibristle. His
first operational deck landing of the war was in Glorious, on the way to the
Norwegian campaign, where he saw action before transferring to 803 Squadron in
Ark Royal and took part in the unsuccessful attack against the German warships
Scharnhorst and Hipper in Trondheim
in June 1940. Ark Royal subsequently joined Force H at Gibraltar,
Gibson taking part in the operations against the French Navy at Oran.
When Ark Royal returned home for refit, he transferred to a Fulmar fighter
squadron in the carrier Formidable. He slept through the night action of the
Battle of Cape Matapan, being mildly disturbed by gunfire. In April 1941, while
attacking Italian aircraft, he was wounded in four places. After a period
operating from RAF airfields in North Africa and Palestine,
appointed commanding officer of 802 Squadron in the escort carrier Audacity for
7 days before she was sunk. Gibson was sent to the Central
Flying School
at Hullavington to train as an instructor, and thence to the Empire
Central Flying School
in Miami, Florida.
After two years in America,
he was destined to be an air group commander in the Pacific theatre, had the
war not come to its end first.
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 28 November 2000
Alan GOODFELLOW
Alan Goodfellow learnt to fly at Hendon, flew in the RFC during WW 1, joined
the Fleet Air Arm for WW 2 and ended as Commander (A), RNVR. He helped Leeming
found Lancashire Aero Club, but preferred their gliding activities, and got B
badge number 11 in 1930, helping to found the Derby & Lancs club at
Camphill.
Source: Sailplane & Glider, August 1944 "Alan Goodfellow -
Vivatuary."
Sailplane & Gliding, June 1971 "Alan Goodfellow - Obituary."
Captain David Gordon GOODWIN, CBE, DSC, RN
Fleet Air Arm officer who took part in the Taranto
raid: launched from the aircraft carrier Illustrious but included aircraft and
crews from Eagle, of whom Goodwin and his Royal Marine pilot, Captain
"Olly" Patch were one. Goodwin and Patch were both awarded the DSC.
He went to Dartmouth as a cadet in
1925. His first ship, which he joined in 1929, was the old battleship
Emperor of India. Goodwin subsequently served in the cruisers Cornwall
and Kent on the China Station. he volunteered for flying and joined No 30 Naval
Observers Course, passing out top in 1936. He then attended the School
of Naval Co-operation at RAF
Lee-on-Solent in 1937. From 1937 to 1939 Goodwin flew in Swordfish, first with
820 naval air squadron from Courageous and then with 824 squadron from Eagle on
the China Station.After three years in Eagle, Goodwin came home in July 1941
and had three months in the Naval Air Division in the Admiralty before being
appointed to 819 squadron as CO, one of the first observers to command a
squadron. In April 1942, Goodwin was appointed to HMS Condor, the naval air
tation at Arbroath, to establish the Naval
Air Signal School.
Promoted Commander in December 1944, he joined the light fleet carrier Glory as
Commander (Ops) and went out to the Far East in her to
join the British Pacific Fleet, but she arrived in Sydney
on VJ Day, too late for operations against the Japanese. Glory went to Rabaul
to receive the surrender of Japanese forces in the Bismarcks,
the Solomons and New Guinea,
before taking part in repatriation duties.
The Times 5 March 1999
Daily
Telegraph 20 March 1999
The Independent 26 April 1999
Vice Admiral Sir John Michael Dudgeon "Jock" GRAY
Went to Dartmouth in 1926.he
qualified as a gunnery officer at HMS Excellent in 1938. He then served in the
carrier Hermes in the East Indies until early 1942, when he was appointed
gunnery officer of the cruiser Spartan, building at Vickers Armstrong, Barrow.
He was an Officer who served in post-war Japan,
knew the spy George Blake in Korea
and became the last British admiral at Simonstown: Naval Adviser to the British
Liaison Mission in Japan,
based in Tokyo, from 1947 to 1951. Japan
was then occupied by the American Armed Forces, under General Douglas MacArthur,
supported in southern Honshu by Commonwealth units from Britain,
Australia and New
Zealand. Gray was in Tokyo
throughout the two-year war crimes trials of senior Japanese military and
political leaders, including the Prime Minister, General Hideki Tojo. All were
found guilty, and Tojo and six others were sentenced to death.
Daily
Telegraph 14 February 1998
Rear Admiral Peter GRAY
Officer who won a DSC off Norway,
swept a U-boat conning tower with Lewis gun fire and was five times mentioned
in despatches. Was one of the Navy's most distinguished destroyer captains; he
served at sea in small ships throughout the Second World War, won the DSC, and
was mentioned in despatches five times during his career. After leaving Durban,
Gray went out in 1937 to the China Station, to join the Yangtse river gunboat
Ladybird. On his return from the Far East, Gray
qualified as a pilot at RAF Leuchars, but did not join a Fleet Air Arm
squadron. When war broke out, Gray was serving in the destroyer Echo, which was
credited with early successes against U-boats, such that her Captain was
awarded the DSO, but in fact none of the U-boats she attacked was sunk.
Daily
Telegraph, 28 June 1997
Sir Hedley Bernard "John" GREENBOROUGH
Shell director who kept oil supplies flowing in the crisis of 1974:was a
managing director of Shell and president of the CBI. He joined the Asiatic
Petroleum Co (later renamed Shell Petroleum) in 1939, and served as a pilot in
the RAF and Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. He also qualified as an
aviator with the US Navy at Pensacola.
Daily
Telegraph, 25 July 1998
Captain Michael Goodier “Pinkie” HAWORTH, CBE, DSC*, RN
Fleet Air Arm officer who took part in the Battle of Matapan - was one of
the Fleet Air Arm observers whose close shadowing and accurate reporting of the
Italian fleet made an invaluable contribution to the British victory off Cape
Matapan on 28 March 1941.
Haworth's squadron, No 826, who began with a dawn
search. In another torpedo strike, the heavy cruiser Pola was hit and lay dead
in the water. In 1927 went as a cadet to Dartmouth.
Haworth joined No 33 Observer Course in 1938 and after
getting his wings was appointed to 823 squadron, flying Fairey Swordfish from
the carrier Glorious in the Mediterranean. Came home
early in 1940 to join 815 squadron and then 826, flying from RAF Bircham
Newton, covered the Dunkirk evacuation, made 22 night attacks against coastal
targets in France, Belgium and Holland, dropped seven tons of mines and 56 tons
of bombs and escorted 92 Channel convoys. In December 1940, 826 sailed in
Formidable for the eastern Mediterranean, attacking
Italian bases at Massawa and Mogadishu
on the way. The squadron covered convoys to and from Malta,
spotted for the fleet's guns bombarding Tripoli,
and took part in the battle for Crete.Operating with the RAF over the Western
Desert, became 826's Senior
Observer in July 1941, and was awarded a Bar to his DSC for his service in the
desert. In early 1942 went to Advanced Air HQ at Tobruk as Naval Liaison
Officer to 201 (Naval Co-Operation) Group RAF. In June 1942, he was appointed
Assistant Operations Officer in the carrier Furious and took part in the Pedestal
convoy in August, then joined the staff of the Allied Naval Commander
Expeditionary Force, planning the Torch landings in North Africa in November
1942, followed by the landings in Sicily in July 1943. His next appointment was
on the staff of the Supreme Allied Commander South-East Asia, first in Delhi
and then in Kandy in Ceylon,
planning amphibious landings in Japanese-held territory in the Far
East. Late in 1945, he joined the new carrier Triumph as
Operations Officer, for training and trials in home waters. In May 1947,
Triumph escorted the battleship Vanguard on her return from the Royal Tour of
South Africa. Haworth was awarded a DSC, and CBE
postwar.
Daily
Telegraph, 22 May 1999
Ronald Geoffrey HENTON
On coming down from King’s College, London in the early years of the war he
enlisted in the Fleet Air Arm and became a navigator; his war experience
including service in RNAS stations in Ceyton , uneventful on the whole, first
roused in him his life-long enthusiasm for travel overseas. On demobilisation,
a short unhappy spell in his father’s clothing business drove him, like so many
of us failed commercial venturers, into discovering in schoolmastering a more
rewarding way of life, and, after a short spell at a Scottish Prep School, he
was appointed to Oakham by Talbot Griffith in 1946.
Source: Old Oakhamian Club, 2000
Captain Sandy HODGE GC RNVR
He joined the RNVR in 1938, and was one of the first two RNVR officers to
join Eagle in 1939. He served in her in the Mediterranean Fleet, when her
aircraft covered Malta
convoys. Eagle also took part in the action against the Italian fleet off Calabria
and in the attack on the Italian battle fleet at Taranto.
Later she ferried fighters to Malta
and searched for raiders in the Indian Ocean and the South
Atlantic. Won his award for gallantry early in the Second World
War when he was serving in the aircraft carrier Eagle, which was badly damaged
by a serious accident. Hodge was a Sub-Lieutenant RNVR when, on 14 March 1940,
Eagle's Fairey Swordfish torpedo-bombers were being ranged and armed to search
for a German commerce raider reported between Ceylon and the Nicobar Islands. A
250 lb bomb was being fused in the bomb room when it detonated, killing 13
ratings and wounding five. A large fire broke out, which was eventually
extinguished by spraying the hangar. It was quite possible that the entire bomb
room might explode at any moment, yet he went down to search for survivors.
Hodge was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal, which was subsequently replaced
by the George Cross, instituted by King George VI in September 1940.
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 11 January, 1997
Professor H W M HODGES
Conservationist who was fascinated in the way ancient objects were made, he
was a specialist in the conservation of archaeological artefacts. In 1938 he
went up to St John's College,
Cambridge, to study human
pathology, and on the outbreak of war served in the Royal Naval Air Branch and
flew Swordfish with Atlantic convoys until he was invalided out with
tuberculosis.
Daily
Telegraph, 12 July 1997
Colin Gerald Shaw 'Hoppy' HODGKINSON
In the summer of 1938 accepted for pilot training as a midshipman in the
Fleet Air Arm. After training aboard the aircraft carrier Courageous, he had
gone solo and completed 20 hours in a Tiger Moth biplane trainer when he
collided whilst practising blind flying with another aircraft. The Tiger
crashed from 800ft at Gravesend, and so grievously
injuring Hodgkinson that his legs were amputated. Although he was a naval type,
Hodgkinson was welcomed into McIndoe's Guinea Pig Club brotherhood of burned
airmen. Such was their spirit that he determined to emulate Bader and to fly
again. He set his heart on flying Spitfires and by the autumn of 1942 had left
the Navy and went into the RAF as a pilot officer. He was briefly with number
131 squadron, successively to 610 and 510 squadrons, then 611 squadron, then in
the famous Biggin Hill wing. The RAF talked about him as "a second
Bader" when he joined 611 squadron in June 1943 under Wing-Commander
"Laddie" Lucas, the hero of the Battle of Malta.
Daily
Telegraph, 21 September 1996
Lt Commander Sir Michael Murray HORDERN RNVR
A wonderfully versatile actor, equally engaging as King Lear or as the voice
of Paddington Bear: When war broke out Hordern volunteered for the Navy and
served as a gunner in the merchant ship City of Florence,
which was taking ammunition supplies to Alexandria.
Later he was posted to the aircraft carrier Illustrious as Flight Direction
Officer. He proved exceptionally good at this new military science. Off Salerno
in 1943 an enemy flying boat stumbled on Illustrious. Hordern dispatched the
carrier's fighters, and later announced the flying boat's destruction over the
ship's broadcast system, quoting Hamlet's lines on discovering he has stabbed
Polonius: "Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for
thy better." Hordern later took part in the ferocious fighting in
the Pacific, off Okinawa. He rose to lieutenant
commander, and after the war worked at the Admiralty.
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 4 May 1995
Professor William McPhee "Bill" HUTCHINSON
An academic parasitologist. His education was interrupted by the second
world war, during which he served as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. Afterwards
he continued his education at Glasgow
University, graduating in zoology
in 1952.
The Guardian, 6 April, 1999
Rear Admiral John Augustine "Johnny" Ievers RN
Joined the Navy as a cadet at Dartmouth
in 1926. Qualified as aopilot in 1933, subsequently flying from Courageous in
1935 with 821 squadron. Flew walruses from thecruiser Glasgow
in 1939 and into the Norwegian campaign of 1940. Then served with 814 squadron
on HMS Hermes, and was ashore when the ship was sunk in April 1942.
Served with 827 squadron in indomitable during the capture of Diego Suarez,
then from October 1942-January 1945 commanded 824 and 747 squadrons, then in
January 1945 commanded the Naval Test Squadron at Boscombe Down.
Source: Daily Telegraph, 19 August
1995
Lt Commander Peter Denis JONES
Joining the aircraft carrier Hermes as a midshipman (A) in 1939. He
qualified as an observer in 1940 and joined 819 naval air squadron in
Illustrious, then went out to join Eagle in the Mediterranean Fleet. He took
part in the historic night strike against the Italian battle fleet in the harbour
of Taranto on 11 November 1940, in the second strike - and
scored a hit on the starboard beam of the battleship Caio Giulio. Later
the squadron was absorbed into 815 Squadron and a detachment went to Crete
for minelaying, and afterwards flew to Greek airfields to attack shipping.
Jones also served with 819 squadron in the carrier Formidable, on her way to America
for repairs, and with 823 squadron in Furious, on convoy escort. In January
1943, he joined Cunningham's staff at HMS Hannibal in Algiers.
Later Lt Cdr (Ops) in the escort carrier Begum with the Eastern Fleet, and then
ashore at HMS Bambara, the naval air station at China
Bay in Ceylon.
Daily
Telegraph: 2 September 1997
Sir John Donald Brown JUNOR
Sunday Express editor whose column lambasted homosexuals, bishops and
trendies, but whose paper declined: Junor joined the Navy as a midshipman
(RNR), serving in the armed merchant cruiser Canton,
a converted P & O liner. Later he transferred to the Fleet Air Arm. His
training revealed that he was by no means a natural pilot. Relief from the
hazardous business of taking off and landing on aircraft carriers came when he
was appointed editor of Flight Deck, the Fleet Air Arm magazine. In 1945 Junor was
demobbed as a lieutenant, but not before he had fought Kincardine and West
Aberdeenshire for the Liberals at the general election of that
year, losing to the Tories by only 642 votes. Subsequently editor of the Sunday
Express for 32 years, from 1954 to 1986, and one of the last survivors of the
Fleet Street generation that came to prominence under Lord Beaverbrook.
Daily
Telegraph, 10 May 1997
George KIDD
Wrestling champion of the world for 26 years whose speciality was the
'surfboard': He was the lightweight wrestling champion of the world from 1950
until 1976, when he retired undefeated after making an unprecedented 49
successful defences of his title. During the Second World War he served as a
mechanic in the Fleet Air Arm.
Daily
Telegraph, 17 January 1998
Lieutenant Commander Peter Melville "Sheepy" LAMB, DSC*, AFC, MRAeS,
RN
A Fleet Air Arm pilot who survived seven wartime prangs at sea to win a DSC
and Bar in Korea
and Suez. He was the third and last
test pilot of the Saunders-Roe SR.53.
In 1941 he went to HMS St Vincent, Gosport, for initial
training as a naval airman and then to America
for flying instruction at Pensacola,
returning as a Midshipman (A) RNVR at the end of 1942. His flying career began
inauspiciously when he was delivering a Seafire to Christchurch,
Hampshire, in June 1943. He joined 808 squadron, flying Seafires from the
escort carrier Battler, to give fighter cover over the Salerno
landings in September. In 1944, Lamb joined 807, flying Seafires from another
escort carrier, Hunter, taking part in the landings in the south of France in
August and carrying out anti-shipping strikes in the Aegean later in the
year.He joined Hunter in 1945 to join the East Indies Fleet in the Indian
Ocean, where 807 gave air support to the reoccupation of Rangoon in May and
anti-shipping strikes in June. After the war, Lamb applied for a regular RN
commission and was appointed an instructor at the School
of Naval Air Warfare, HMS Vulture,
St Merryn. Postwar Lamb spent a year at the Empire Test Pilots School and went
to Boscombe Down for three years, during which he tested more than 20 different
types of aircraft. On becoming chief test pilot for Saunders Roe, Lamb flew the
rocket jet aircraft SR53, designed to be manned at instant readiness on a
carrier's catapult, thus cutting the cost of maintaining combat air patrols
over the fleet. The first prototype SR53 crashed on take-off at Boscombe Down,
killing the pilot, but Lamb successfully flew the second, achieving British
records for height, of 56,000 feet, and speed, of Mach 1.45, before the whole
project was cancelled.He made the first hovercraft crossing of the Channel on July 25 1959, the 50th anniversary of
Bleriot's historic flight.
Peter wrote the foreword for this book by Henry Matthews "The Saga
of SR.53
A Pictorial Tribute"
Source: Daily
Telegraph, 7 August 2000
Captain Desmond Bernard "Dick" LAW
One of the Navy's outstanding wartime fighter pilots, and eventually made
the difficult transition from RNVR aircrew to the regular RN, with command of a
major warship. Joined the Fleet Air Arm in 1941, serving with 805 squadron, in
support of the 8th Army in the Western
Desert. Law went in January 1943 to
787 squadron, the Naval Air Fighter Development Unit at RAF Duxford, testing
fighter aircraft for the Navy. He then joined 886 squadron, flying Seafires,
first from the escort carrier Attacker, and then from RNAS Lee-on-Solent. In
June 1944 during the D-Day landings, Law was one of 48 pilots spotting for the
guns of the bombarding ships off the Normandy
beaches. Later in 1944, Law was seconded as an exchange pilot to the US Air
Force. One day he was flying Seafires with 886; the next he found himself
flying - with no acquaint course or instruction - a North American P 51 Mustang
long-range fighter with the 352nd US Fighter Group, escorting a massive B-17
Flying Fortress raid over Germany.
In December 1944, Law was appointed CO of 800 squadron on Emperor, Shah and
Khedive in East Indies Fleet operations. In May 1945 he went to the escort
carrier Ameer as CO of 804 squadron, and in July beating off the final kamikaze
attack of the war in the Indian Ocean. Law was awarded
the DSC.
Daily
Telegraph, 28 September 1996
Lieutenant commander Paul LEYTON, DSC, RN
Fleet Air Arm Officer, rocket engineer and restauranteur who served the
snails he bred in a disused swimming pool: Well known to the public as
"Our Man at Woomera" [the rocket test site in Australia], he won the
DSC as a Fleet Air Arm officer in the carrier Furious in 1944; two years later
he retired from the Navy and became one of the country's leading rocket
engineers; and after that a restaurateur in Somerset. Joined the RAF Reserve
for flying training in 1935, getting his wings in August 1936. He transferred
to the Air Branch of the Royal Navy in 1938 and after an aero-engineering
course served at HMS Kestrel, Worthy Down, and then in the carrier Argus,
ferrying Hurricanes and Spitfires to Malta, in 1941. In 1942, served at HMS
Daedalus, Lee-on-Solent, and at RNAS Machrihanish, before joining Furious as
Air Engineer Officer for the next 18 months. Furious's aircraft took part in
the series of Fleet Air Arm attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz, in Kaafjord,
Norway, in the spring and
summer of 1944 and in the sinking of 25,000 tons of enemy shipping along the
Norwegian coast. When Furious paid off for the last time in September
1944, Leyton went to HMS Dipper, Henstridge, Somerset,
as Air Engineer Officer. He then transferred to the Emergency List and left the
Navy in 1946.
Daily
Telegraph, 13 January 1999
Lieutenant commander Ivan Lawrence Firth LOWE
Naval pilot who claimed many enemy aircraft and himself ended in the drink
three times: Lowe joined the Navy in 1938, doing his initial naval training in
the carrier Courageous. After winning his wings, he went to the Fleet
Fighter School
at RNAS Eastleigh, his first front-line squadron was 806 squadron and in May
took part in the Norwegian campaign, carrying out day bombing raids on shipping
and oil tanks in Bergen. He was
mentioned in despatches, then moved to Detling to cover the Dunkirk
evacuation. Later on joining Illustrious in the Mediterranean Fleet shoting
down a Cant Z 501 flying boat, and subsequently 3 other aircraft. He was an
instructor at the Fleet Fighter School, RNAS Yeovilton in 1941-42, and in
September 1942, he had his first command: 882 squadron, and took part from HMS
Victorious in the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in November. Lowe's
second command was 898 squadron on HMS Victorious on her way to the Pacific in
February 1943. After an instructors' course at the Empire
Central Flying School,
RAF Hullavington, in 1944, Lowe went to America
as Senior British Naval Officer, US Naval Air Station, Jacksonville,
Florida. He was released on the Emergency
List in 1946 and returned to civilian life.
Daily
Telegraph 29 August 1998
CommanderThomas James Germaine MARCHANT
Officer who took command of a destroyer while beating off a fierce attack on
a convoy: He was commissioned and promoted sub-lieutenant in December 1930.
After attending the Royal Naval
College, Greenwich,
he served in the battlecruiser Hood, in the cruiser Caradoo on the China
Station and as first lieutenant of the gunboat Peterel on the Yangtse river. In
1943, Marchant had a combined appointment as Torpedo Officer on the staffs of
Flag Officer Air and Flag Officer Western Approaches when, as he put it, he
shuttled between RNAS Lee-on-Solent and Donibristle, reporting the state of
affairs at each air station to himself. After a year as "Torps" at
HMS Urley, the naval air station at Ronaldsway on the Isle of Man,
Marchant went out to the Far East to join the carrier
Indomitable in the British Pacific Fleet. After VJ Day, Indomitable brought
home 1,000 troops and nurses who had suffered appalling treatment in Japanese
camps; Marchant took charge of their welfare.
Daily
Telegraph, 12 December 1998
Commodore Geoffrey Thrippleton MARR
The last captain of the Queen Elizabeth, who as a wartime officer witnessed
the sinking of the Bismarck: Gained
his master's ticket in 1933. Marr joined the new battleship King George V when
she commissioned in October 1940, as the assistant navigating officer. He was
on board for the chase and destruction of the German battleship Bismarck
in the North Atlantic in May 1941. In August 1942, he
was appointed to the escort carrier Activity, again as navigating officer,
providing air cover for convoys to Russia,
anti-U-boat patrols in the Western Approaches for the D-Day landings, and then
joining the East Indies Fleet for the rest of the war.
Daily
Telegraph, 13 March 1997
Vice Admiral Sir Hugh Colenso MARTELL
At Dartmouth as a cadet in 1926.
In 1941 Martell was appointed "G" of the cruiser Berwick, in the Home
Fleet and escorting convoys to Russia.Martell joined the carrier Illustrious as
"G", serving in the East Indies Fleet in 1944 and taking part in
raids on Sabang, Surabaya and Palembang.
In 1945, HMS Illustrious operated with the British Pacific Fleet off the
Sakishima Gunto in the battle for Okinawa, when she was
attacked by kamikaze bombers. Martell was promoted commander out of the ship
and mentioned in despatches.Subsequently a Commander of a naval task force
subjected to secret atomic tests off Australia in 1956 who later faced torrid
examination by a Royal Commission: Commander of Task Force 308 for Operation
Mosaic, the British atomic bomb tests in the Monte Bello islands, off the coast
of Western Australia, in the summer of 1956.
Daily
Telegraph, 13 February 1999
Air Commodore Aeneas Ranald Donald MACDONELL OF GLENGARRY, CB, DFC RAF
Hereditary 22nd Chief of Glengarry and 12th Titular Lord MacDonell, Donald
MacDonell was also a Battle of Britain fighter ace. He went in 1931 as a cadet
to the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell. After gaining his wings he was
appointed to No 54 Fighter Squadron in 1934, flying Bristol Bulldog biplane
fighters. Between 1935 and 1937 he was on secondment to the Fleet Air Arm
flying shipborne fighters from the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious. He next had a
year as a flying instructor and another period at the Directorate of Flying
Training in the Air Ministry. But in May 1940 he was given a squadron
command,that of 64 Squadron, flying sorties against the Luftwaffe high over the
Dunkirk beaches. Throughout the
Battle of Britain he led No 64 Squadron in the thick of the air fighting over
the South of England, notching up 11½ kills, before being shot down in the
spring of the following year while on one of the fighter sweeps over occupied
France which proved so costly to Fighter Command and claimed so many of its
best pilots. He spent the remainder of the war in captivity, much of it at
Stalag Luft III where he helped to organise many escapes,notably the famous
"wooden horse" breakout. While a PoW he heard that his father had
died and he succeeded him as 22nd Chief of Glengarry. He went on to a
distinguished postwar career, notably as air attaché in Moscow,
a post for which his excellent Russian eminently equipped him.
Glengarry's obituary as published in the London
"Times"
Lt Commander James Leslie MACLEAN RCN
76, died in the early hours of January
9, 1999. Born August 21,
1922.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, he served in the Royal Navy Fleet
Air Arm, receiving pilot flying training from the RCAF in St.
Eugene, Ontario, St.
Jean, Quebec and Kingston,
Ontario. In 1946, he returned to Dalhousie
University to finish his
studies before embarking on a career in the Royal Canadian Navy which spanned
more than 20 years and took him and his young family across Canada
and back. He was very active in community life as a member of the Naval
Officers' Association of Canada, Royal United Services Institute, Navy League
of Canada, and Crow's Nest Sea Going Officers' Club of St. John's, Nfld.
Source: Halifax
Herald - Mail Star
Duncan MENZIES
Test pilot who survived break-up of plane braved the perils of RAF and civil
test flying in the rush to re-arm during the months before and after the
outbreak of the Second World War.
Since 1933 Menzies had been testing aircraft for the RAF at the Air Ministry's
Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE). In 1937, Flt-Lt
Menzies was placed on the Reserve to accept the post of deputy to Chris
Staniland, the chief test pilot with Fairey Aviation. Following his near-fatal
Fulmar accident in 1941, Menzies continued to test Fairey aircraft and to
liaise with the Navy. Calling on the Admiralty, Menzies convinced its air
warfare and air-training directors that the Fairey Firefly was the machine they
needed. In 1946, Menzies flew the Firefly to Fairey aerodrome at Heston, London,
and demonstrated it to the Admiralty. When Menzies made his last flight in
February 1952 he selected his beloved prototype Fulmar before it was presented
to the Fleet Air
Arm Museum
at Yeovilton in Somerset.
Daily
Telegraph, 9 June 1997
Reverend Eric MILNER MA, RN.
Eric’s pastoral work as a priest
in the Church of England and as a Chaplain in the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm
for which he served for 21 years was always his primary concern and that in
which he took most pride, and his experiences in his chosen profession were of
much greater interest to his many relatives and friends. In October 1930, Eric
was admitted to Merton College,
Oxford, as a Commoner. His
contribution to beekeeping and bee breeding was renowned in Great
Britain and Ireland.
He was cremated at the Dewsbury Crematorium with full Naval Honours, a guard of
honour being provided by his comrades in the Royal Naval Association and the
Yorkshire Fleet Air Arm, a fitting tribute from the officers and men of the
Royal Navy.
Source: BIBBA4 November 2000
Captain John William MOTT
He went to Dartmouth as a cadet
in 1930 and then to the training cruiser Frobisher. He qualified as a marine
engineer officer at the RN Engineering College, Keyham, in 1938. He was damage
control officer of the cruiser Exeter
in the Battle of the River Plate in
December 1939, and subsequently helped to save the cruiser Exeter
and the battleship Malaya . Mott volunteered for the
Fleet Air Arm and qualified as a pilot at Goderich,
Ontario, in 1943. He returned to this
country to join the air engineering instructional staff at the RN Engineering
College, Manadon, Plymouth.
Promoted commander in 1949, he went to the Department of Air Maintenance and
Repair in charge of spares provisioning.
Daily
Telegraph, 3 October 1998
Commander Daniel Patrick Danny NORMAN
One of the Navy's outstanding test pilots, involved in many of the postwar
developments in Fleet Air Arm aircraft. He joined the Navy as a naval airman in
October 1943, served during the Korean War with the Naval Air-Sea Warfare
Development Unit; with 827 Squadron in the carrier Triumph; and later in
Implacable, Illustrious and Centaur. He completed the Empire Test Pilots course
in 1955, and went to the Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment,
Boscombe Down, where he spent two years in 'C' Squadron, carrying out
evaluation trials of the Blackburn Buccaneer for Navy service.
Daily
Telegraph, 17 January 1997
HED "Ted" O'NEILL
After leaving school in 1940 he joined the Fleet Air Arm and did his flying
training in Canada
in 1941-41 where he acquired a love of the country. On his return to civilian
life he trained as a teacher at the Wyndham
Teachers Training
College in Norfolk
and spent the whole of his working life in teaching, some of which was in Canada.
Source: SJN
Briggensians Page. Newsletter Spring 1997
Lieutenant-Commander George Myles Thomas 'Woozle' OSBORN DSO OBE DSC RN
Naval pilot who played crucial part in the Battle of Cape Matapan: Swordfish
pilot who braved searchlights and tracer barrage to sink Axis ships in the Mediterranean.
He went to Dartmouth in 1927, and
got his pilot's wings at Leuchars in 1937 and served in the carriers Furious
and Ark Royal. Twice decorated for his service in the Mediterranean
in 1941, he subsequently ended his wartime career in a PoW camp. Osborn joined
829 naval air squadron when it was first formed in June 1940, joined the
aircraft carrier Formidable in November for passage to the Mediterranean,
arriving in March 1941.For his part at Matapan, Osborn was awarded the DSC and
subsequently served ashore to Hal Far, Malta, to join 830 naval air squadron in
strikes against Axis ships supplying Rommel's Afrika Korps in Libya. From June
to November 1941, Osborn flew on 17 operations, during which 830 squadron was
credited with sinking or damaging more than 50,000 tons of shipping. On 11 Nov 1941, as senior piliot of 830
he was on target to attack an Axis convoy reported south of Sicily.
But had flown hopelessly off course, ditching out of fuel on the north coast of
Sicily. Osborn's DSO for his Malta
operations was gazetted in January 1942. But by then he was a PoW in Mont Albo,
Padusa and Bologna in Italy.
After the Italian armistice, he was taken to Germany,
to a camp near Luneburg, where he
was on the escape committee. Osborn was released in 1945 after which for two
years he was CO of 771 squadron, a Fleet Requirements Unit flying Seafires from
Lee-on-Solent.
Daily
Telegraph, 22 May 1997
The Times, 12 May 1997
Air Vice Marshal Leonard "PANK" PANKHURST RAF
Pilot who began his career on North West Frontier patrol and in 1939 thought
up a plan to save lives, which was ignored: He first gained his flying
experience with Bristol fighters on the North West Frontier in the 1920s, where
he policed and, as required, punished dissident tribesmen in conflict with the
Raj as a pilot in No 5 Squadron. Before he was granted his short service
commission in 1925 he had served an apprenticeship with Sopwith Aviation and
worked as a design draughtsman at Westland
and Glosters. From 1930 to 1933 he was an engineer with Air Defence of Great Britain,
the forerunner of Fighter Command. Pankhurst was adjutant to Nos 17 and 3
Squadrons of Bulldog fighters station at Upavon from 1933 to 1935, when he took
a flying boat course at Calshot. Then, as a flight commander with the Fleet Air
Arm 825 Squadron, Pankhurst flew Fairey IIIFs and Swordfish torpedo bombers
from the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious in the Mediterranean.
An appointment to the engineering staff at Fighter Command's No 12 Group and a Staff
College course at Andover
completed his preparation for war.
Daily
Telegraph, 5 April 1997
Rear Admiral Douglas Granger PARKER
Leader of first British air attack on Japan,
skipping 500 lb bombs into targets at roof-top height: When war broke
out he joined the Navy at HMS St Vincent, Gosport, as a
naval airman in 1940. After gaining his wings and being commissioned as a Sub
Lt RNVR, he joined 772 naval air squadron, flying Blackburn Skuas from HMS
Landrail, Machrihanish, Argyll. In March 1942, he joined his first front-line
squadron, 884, flying Fairey Fulmar fighters. The squadron embarked in the
carrier Victorious and sailed for the Mediterranean in
August as part of the escort for the Pedestal convoy to Malta.
During Pedestal, one of the most spectacular naval operations of the war,
Parker shot down one Italian aircraft off Sardinia. He
provided fighter cover for the Torch landings in North Africa
in November 1942. In June 1943, Parker joined 833, in the escort carrier
Stalker in August as part of Force V to provide fighter cover for the landings
at Salerno in September. In
December 1943, he went to Boscombe Down and test-flew Corsairs to evaluate them
for Fleet Air Arm service. In April 1944, he had his first squadron command,
1845, equipped with Corsairs. His ship HMS Slinger joined the BPF at Leyte
Gulf in April 1945, where 1845 disbanded, Parker taking command of
1842 squadron for operations against the Japanese on the Sakishima Gunto, a
chain of islands between Formosa
and Okinawa. He led the first British aircraft to attack
targets on the Japanese mainland, in the summer of 1945. Parker was then CO of
1842 naval air squadron, flying Corsair from the carrier Formidable, serving in
the British Pacific Fleet. The BPF was then operating on the right of the line
of the US 3rd
Fleet under Admiral "Bull" Halsey. For his leadership of 1842 from
April to August 1945, Parker was awarded an immediate DSC, followed by a DSO.
Daily
Telegraph: 8 April 2000
Arthur Henry PHEBEY
Renowned batsman cricketer who opened for Kent
and once scored a century between thunderstorms. He served Kent Cricket Club with
style and distinction as an opening batsman from 1948 to 1961, and afterwards,
from 1979 to 1986, as chairman of the club's cricket sub-committee. During the
Second World War he served as a sub-lieutenant in the Navy, he flew fighters in
the Fleet Air Arm.
Daily
Telegraph, 18 July 1998
Lieutenant-Commander Dennis Walter PHILLIPS RN
Naval pilot who cheated death eight times in crashes and ditches in the sea,
surviving to help bomb the German battleship Tirpitz: In a seven-year flying
career which included the Second World War, he used up eight of the proverbial
cat's nine lives, surviving three ditchings and five crashes. He joining the
Navy as a Midshipman (A) in 1939, and gaining his wings in April 1940. Early in
1941, he joined 829 naval air squadron, on HMS Formidable, saw action off Cape
Matapan, when three Italian heavy cruisers and two destroyers were
sunk by the Mediterranean Fleet. In August he was with 815 squadron, flying
over the desert in support of the 8th Army. Phillips spent the next year as an
instructor in the torpedo school at RNAS Dekheila, near Alexandria,
and then as a maintenance test pilot at HMS Phoenix, the aircraft repair yard
at Fayid in Egypt.
In 1942 he joined RNAS Crail torpedo school, as an instructor. In March 1944 he
was appointed CO of 829 naval air squadron, flying Fairey Barracudas, with
which he embarked in the carrier Victorious for Operation Tungsten, the Fleet
Air Arm strikes against the German battleship Tirpitz, lying in Kaafjord in Norway.
In June 1944, Phillips led 829 squadron in Operation Lombard, an attack on
enemy shipping in the Norwegian leads south of Aalesund. Phillips himself
obtained one direct hit and two near-misses on the 6,500-ton merchant ship Florida,
which later sank. He went out to the Far East in
Victorious and took command of 834 squadron flying anti-submarine patrols in
the Indian Ocean from the escort carrier Battler.
In 1945 Phillips commanded 744 squadron at Maydown and Eglinton in Northern
Ireland, and then went as
Lieutenant-Commander (Flying) at HMS Raven, Eastleigh,
now Southampton airport, where he often gave air
experience to ATC cadets.
Daily
Telegraph, 10 January 1998
Jeffrey QUILL
He was renowned as a test-pilot, involved with development of, among others,
the Spitfire and Seafire.
The Guardian 24 February 1996,
The Times 29 February 1996
Malcolm RAE
An electronic engineer and dowser who later took a great interest in the
development of radionic instruments. However, he joined the Fleet Air Arm in
1940 serving with Captain Atkinson in WW2, who was married to Jean Atkinson the
homeopath. Malcolm and the Captain talked about homeopathy, and subsequently
studied and practised homeopathy from Dr. Farley Spink and Dr. Donald
Foubister.
[1913-1978/9]
Commander Dickie REYNOLDS
Fleet Air Arm pilot who shot down three Japanese aircraft during the
invasion of Okinawa in 1945
TheDaily
Telegraph
Lieutenant Commander William Alastair ROBERTSON
He went to Dartmouth as a cadet
in 1928. He served in the battleship Nelson in the Home Fleet, the cruiser Exeter
in the South Atlantic, and in the destroyer Antelope,
protecting British interests during the Spanish Civil War. Robertson was one of
the first pilots to land a Blackburn Skua fighter-divebomber on a flight deck.
The Skua was the Navy's first monoplane aircraft, and Robertson was one of the
naval pilots who started flying training at RAF Leuchars, May 1937. Robertson
won his wings in December and joined 801 naval air squadron in 1938, flying
Hawker Osprey biplanes from the carrier Furious. He then joined 803, flying
from Ark Royal. War broke out, and on 26
September 1939 he flew one of three Skuas which shot down a Dornier
Do.18 flying boat over the North Sea - the first German
aircraft of the war to be shot down by British pilots. When 803 flew
ashore to Wick to join the air defences of Scapa Flow in
October, Robertson heard there was a temporary shortage of sea-going officers
and a glut of pilots. He volunteered to give up flying and return to sea
service. In March 1940 Robertson was appointed First Lieutenant of the
destroyer Ambuscade, whose guns fought a brisk action with German tanks on the
cliffs of Fecamp in June, before joining the 3rd Escort Group, escorting
Atlantic convoys, in September. Robertson left Ambuscade in April 1941 to take
a navigating officer's course. In December 1943 Robertson was appointed
"N" of the cruiser Scylla, Admiral Vian's flagship for the Normandy
landings in June 1944. Robertson ended the war as "N" of the light
fleet carrier HMS Ocean.
Daily
Telegraph, 14 November 1998
Commander Robert Hedley Selbourne "Robin" RODGER RN
Early bird' of the Fleet Air Arm whose musicianship impressed Noël Coward:
He joined the Navy in 1914, going to Osborne and Dartmouth.
He served in the First World War as a midshipman, joining the battleship
Agamemnon in the Mediterranean in 1917. He was one of
the earliest of the Fleet Air Arm's "early birds", gaining his wings
on the second naval pilot's training course at RAF Netheravon in 1925. The next
year he joined 460 Flight, flying Blackburn Dart biplane torpedo-bombers from
the carrier Eagle. He took part in Eagle's trail-blazing Mediterranean
commission, when her aircraft first demonstrated the full potential of air
power at sea to an astonished, gunnery-dominated Fleet. Rodger continued in the
Mediterranean from 1927, flying Darts with 460 Flight
from the carrier Courageous, until 1930, when he joined the cruiser Norfolk
in the Atlantic Fleet. He returned to the Mediterranean
in 1932, to fly Blackburn Ripon IIcs, from the carrier Glorious in 461 Flight,
which became 812 Squadron in 1933. " It took me all my flying career
to qualify for the Perch Club" [after 100 deck landings]". Pilots had
dual naval and RAF ranks, and it was possible for the two ranks to get badly
out of step. By 1933, Rodger was a Lieutenant-Commander in the Navy, but only a
Flight-Lieutenant in the RAF. He was one of a dozen pilots who were advised to
leave the Fleet Air Arm. As compensation, they were allowed to choose their
next appointments. Rodger chose command of the 625-ton river gunboat Aphis, and
had two blissful years on the China Station.
He was appointed to the Air Material Department in the Admiralty in 1938,
and was promoted to Commander the next year. Rodger spent the Second World War
in the Ministry of Aircraft Production, organising the trials of new airborne
weapons, such as "Highball", a smaller anti-shipping version of the
Dambusters' "bouncing bomb", which reached the Far East
in January 1945, but was never used operationally. He was appointed OBE in
1944, and retired in 1946.
He was also a gifted pianist and joined with Anthony Kimmins, a fellow pilot
in Eagle, in the production of the brilliant musical show Suffering Wildcats,
which was staged in Malta
in 1926. The male cast of the show was drawn entirely from the Fleet Air Arm.
Rodger also composed the music for While Parents Sleep, the West End
smash hit of 1932, which Kimmins wrote while convalescing after a skiing
accident. was friends with Noël Coward. They met when Coward paid a visit to
Glorious in 1932; he heard Rodger playing and singing "Mad About the
Boy" in the wardroom.
Daily
Telegraph, 7 June 1997
Rear Admiral Henry Cuthbert Norris ROLFE, RN
Naval pilot involved in early aerial photography who flew Fairey Swordfish
from Ark Royal in the 1930s and who who commanded aircraft carriers in the
1950s: He went to Pangbourne Nautical
College before joining the Navy as
a cadet in 1925. His first ships as a midshipman were the battleships Iron Duke
and Emperor of India. He trained as a pilot at RAF Leuchars and gained his
wings in 1931, joining 460 and 462 Flights, flying biplanes such as the
Blackburn Ripon torpedo-bomber and the Fairey IIIF spotter-reconnaissance
aircraft from the carrier Glorious in the Mediterranean.
Later, in 1933, when the two Flights amalgamated to form 812 naval air
squadron, Rolfe flew the Blackburn Baffin. In 1934 Rolfe qualified as an
observer and joined 820 squadron, flying Blackburn Shark torpedo bombers from
the carrier Courageous in the Home Fleet. After two years at the School of
Naval Co-operation at RAF Ford, in Sussex, Rolfe went to sea again in 1939 as
senior observer of 814 squadron, flying Fairey Swordfish from the new carrier
Ark Royal. At the outbreak of war, 814 transferred to the carrier Hermes and
served off the coast of West Africa and in the Indian
Ocean.Late in 1941 Rolfe came home to join the Ministry of Aircraft Production.
In 1944 Rolfe joined the staff of the Deputy Naval Commander, South-East Asia
Command, at Kandy, in Ceylon.
On VJ Day he was executive officer of the cruiser Black Prince in the British
Pacific Fleet. He commanded several ships, including the light fleet carriers,
Vengeance, flagship of the Third Carrier Squadron in the Mediterranean
in 1952, and Centaur during her first commission, from 1954 to 1956.
Daily
Telegraph, 10 May 1997
Captain Richard Cyril Vesey ROSS
Naval officer who witnessed the scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at Scapa
Flow in 1919 and won a DSO at Dunkirk:
He won the DSO in command of the 5th Minesweeping Flotilla which took part in
the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk
in 1940.
He went to Osborne as a cadet in 1915 and to Dartmouth the next year, winning
the King's Medal for the highest marks of any cadet in his term on passing out.
In 1935, he joined the aircraft carrier Glorious as First Lieutenant and served
in her in the Mediterranean until 1937, when he was
promoted to Commander. From 1937 to 1941, he served in minesweepers operating
off the East coast, off Northern Ireland
and the Belgian coast. Late in 1942, Ross was appointed Executive Officer of
the aircraft carrier Victorious which, in response to an urgent request from
the US Navy, went through the Panama Canal to operate
with the US
carrier Saratoga in the Pacific for
some months of 1943. Victorious then came home to take part in Operation
Tungsten, the Fleet Air Arm attack on the German battleship Tirpitz in northern
Norway in April
1944. Promoted Captain in June 1944, Ross was appointed Captain (Minesweeping)
in the Mediterranean, in charge of clearing ports in the
South of France, for which he was made an Officer of the Légion d'honneur.
Daily
Telegraph, 12 February 2000
Frederick RUTLAND
Royal Navy hero officer 'was spy for Japanese': A British officer who won
the DSO for gallantry at Jutland, spied on the US Navy for the Japanese from
1934 until shortly before the outbreak of the Pacific War, according to the MI5
files. Frederick Rutland joined the Royal Navy as a boy and received a
commission in the First World War during which he served "with great
distinction", he later transferred to the RAF and became a pioneer in
naval air warfare and aircraft carriers. While Rutland
was still serving as a squadron leader in the RAF in 1922 he was approached by
the Japanese for advice on aircraft carriers. A few months later, he resigned
his commission. In 1933, his name came up in messages intercepted by Britain's
codebreakers. Oka Arata, who was the Japanese Naval Attache in London,
had recruited him as a spy. Codenamed Shinkawa (New River)
he was given £100,000, the equivalent of £3 million today, to start up a
business and £3,750 (£150,000) a year salary. The British codebreakers also
intercepted a message from Arata to Tokyo
in which he said Rutland was
setting up a branch of his import-export business in Regent
Street as a "post box" through which he
could pass his intelligence reports to the Japanese naval attache in London.
Rutland was followed by MI6 to America
where he was watched by the FBI. Over the next eight years until 1941 his
intelligence reports were monitored by the British. He appears to have spent
much of his time living a high life in Beverly Hills.
But this came to an end in 1941 when the FBI apprehended a Japanese spy.
Fearing he would be compromised, Rutland
approached the Americans offering to obtain intelligence from the Japanese. His
offer was declined and the FBI offered him back to MI5. Rutland
was induced to return to Britain
and spent the months until the war living in his expensive home, Spinfield,
near Marlow, bombarding MI5 with offers to spy on the Japanese. He was interned
when war broke out. Because the only evidence the British had against him came
from the top secret codebreaking operations, they were unable to hold him and
in 1944 he was released.
The
Daily Telegraph, 10 November 2000
William Charles Bill SARRA
Fleet Air Arm pilot who took part in the raid on Taranto:
One of the Fleet Air Arm aircrew which made the historic night strike on the
Italian battle fleet in the harbour
of Taranto on 11 November 1940 from HMS Illustrious He
joined the Navy as a Midshipman (A) in 1938, gaining his wings in 1939. In May
1940 he joined 815 Naval Air Squadron, operating under Coastal Command from
Bircham Newton in support of the Dunkirk
evacuation. In June, 815 squadron embarked in Illustrious for service in the
Mediterranean Fleet, On 15 April, Sarra and Bowker attacked Valona
harbour. Their aircraft was shot down and they were both taken prisoner. After
the Italian armistice in September 1943, the Germans took over their PoW camps;
Sarra and Bowker were moved to Marlag und Milag Nord near Bremerhaven.
Sarra reverted to the Emergency List in 1946 and became a chartered surveyor in
Taunton, Somerset.
Daily
Telegraph, 23 May 1998
Admiral Sir Victor Alfred Trumper SMITH
Fleet Air Arm officer who saved his pilot's life after ditching in the Mediterranean.
He was called the "Father of the Fleet Air Arm" in the Royal
Australian Navy; his flying career began the 1930s and continued through the
Second World War, when he was mentioned in despatches and won a DSC. He went to
the Royal Australian
Navy College
at Jervis Bay
as a cadet in 1927. In 1937 he went to Britain to qualify as an observer, and
joined 825 naval air squadron, HMS Glorious 1938, in September 1939, he joined
821 squadron on HMS Ark Royal and took part in the Norwegian Campaign in 1940.
On 21 June 1940, Smith, as
821's Senior Observer, led the strike against the Scharnhorst, then joined 807
squadron as Senior Observer in September 1940. After a period in the carrier
Furious Smith returned to Ark Royal with 807 in April 1941. On 8 May 1941, Smith's pilot,
"Buster" Hallett, shot down an Italian SM 79 bomber but their Fulmar
was hit and had to ditch. Later in May, Ark Royal took part in the search and
destruction of the Bismarck in the Atlantic.
Smith was awarded the DSC. In September, Smith returned to Australia,
to HMAS Assault, the RAN Combined Operations Base at Nelson's Bay, Port
Stephens, New South Wales. He
served there until February 1943, when he joined the Australian cruiser Shropshire,
operating in the South Pacific. Smith went back to the air branch in
August 1943 as Air Staff Officer in the escort carrier Tracker. Smith
then had appointments at HMS Copra, the Combined Operations Base at Largs, and,
in April 1945, on the staff of Vice Admiral (Q) at HMAS Beaconsfield in Melbourne.
After the war, Smith served in HMAS Cerberus II, on the staff of the RAN Naval
Liaison Officer in London. Promoted
Commander in 1949, he was appointed Executive Officer of the carrier HMAS
Sydney in 1950, which took part in the Korean War the next year, the first
Commonwealth aircraft carrier to go into action.
Daily
Telegraph, 1 August 1998
Commander Edward Walker "Bill" SYKES
Joined the Fleet Air Arm from the RAF, 1937. Served in 720 Squadron Catapult
Flight in the cruiser Achilles during the Battle
of the River Plate against the German battleship Graf Spee, December 1939. 778
Service Trials Squadron, Arbroath, 1941. Flight desk officer, carrier
Victorious in Operation Tungsten strikes against the German battleship Tirpitz,
April 1944, and against kamikaze attacks off the Sakishima Gunto, May 1945. DSC
1945. Clerk of the Course, Devon and Exeter
and Taunton racecourses. Hon Sec
South Devon Hunt.
Daily
Telegraph: 2 August 1997: Obituaries in brief
Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Allison Fitzroy TALBOT, DSO and bar, CB, KBE RN
Entered Dartmouth in 1923, and
opted for the Fleet Air Arm as a sub-lieutenant in theearly 1930s, but after an
accident colliding with another aircraft which injured him out of his flying
career. He then rejoined the Fleeteing appointed to Royal
Oak.
Source: The Independent, 26 June
1998
Rear Admiral John Yelverton THOMPSON
Went to Dartmouth as a cadet in
1923. He served as a midshipman in the battle-cruiser Repulse, as a
sub-lieutenant in the battleship Warsprite and as a lieutenant in the
battleship Queen Elizabeth. He then qualified as a gunnery officer at HMS
Excellent in Portsmouth in 1934.
Commander in the Korean War of the only British aircraft carrier ever to
undertake a shore bombardment with her own guns. Commanded the aircraft carrier
Unicorn in the Korean War from November 1950 until May 1952; He also
received the American Legion of Merit.
Daily
Telegraph, 25 April 1998
John Mansfield THOMSON
New Zealand
music historian. During 1944-45 he briefly saw war service in the Fleet Air Arm
and on being demobilised encountered the cultural richness of life in London.
This would prove to be a decisive experience. He returned to New
Zealand in 1946 and completed a BA in
history at Victoria University of Wellington. He received the CANZ Citation for
Services to New Zealand Music in February 1988.
Source: This tribute appeared in Music in New
Zealand no.36, (Summer 1999-2000) and is re-published
on the University of Waikato Music Department web site
Charles Stewart VEINOTTE
Canadian who during the Second World War, served with the Civilian Fleet Air
Arm, and after came to Lunenburg, Novia Scotia in Canada
working as a salesman for Maritime Accessories.
Source: Lunenberg
County Nova Scotia Geneology: Obituaries - November 1997
CAPTAIN Leigh Edward Delves EDWARD WALTHALL
Took part as a naval pilot in the ill-conceived operation, codenamed EF, in
the Arctic in the summer of 1941: The DSC which Ed
Walthall won with 812 naval air squadron was one of the very few bright aspects
in an almost unmitigated disaster for the Fleet Air Arm. The strikes were
carried out on 31 July - on Kirkenes by aircraft from the carrier Victorious,
on Petsamo by those from Furious. He joined the Navy as a cadet at Dartmouth
in 1927. Qualified as a pilot at RAF Leuchars in 1936. Summer in 1940 in 826
naval squadron, flying Swordfish under RAF Coastal Command control, support Dunkirk
evacuation. Later in 1941, instructor in 785 squadron, RNAS Crail , 1942 Senior
Naval Officer of the Naval Aircraft Centre at Roosevelt Field, Long Island,
where newly-formed Fleet Air Arm squadrons trained to fly their US aircraft. He
ended the war in the battleship King George V.
Daily
Telegraph 30 October 1996
Commander Leslie 'Tug' WILSON RN
Fleet Air Arm officer involved with early use of Merchant Aircraft Carriers for
convoy escort and survived three sinkings in 1941 to pioneer the use of
merchant ships as aircraft carriers for convoy protection in the Battle
of the Atlantic in 1943: Joining the Navy as a boy
signalman at Ganges in 1929. In 1938, Wilson
transferred to the FAA, No 34 Observer Course at RAF Ford. 825 squadron, HMS
Glorious, in 1939, involved BEF Dunkirk. In 1941 joined 804 squadron and
3 times survivor od sinking CAM ships: Patia, Michael E
and Springbank. In 1942 CO of 834 Squadron,HMS Archer and later 19 Group RAF.
Wilson, as senior observer of 836, played a major part in evolving MAC ship
tactics and training the crews - particularly in the techniques of landing on
decks only 400 ft long and 60 ft wide.The first MAC ship, the 7,950-ton
"grainer" SS Empire MacAlpine, sailed in the outward-bound Atlantic
convoy ONS 9 in May 1943, with Wilson on board as air staff officer. His final
wartime appointment was HMS Monck, the shore base at Largs, on the staff of
Flag Officer Carrier Training. In 1945 Wilson
went out to the Far East in the carrier Venerable.
Daily
Telegraph, 19 May 1997
Commander Peter WINTER
Fleet Air Arm observer 815 sqdn played a crucial part in the victory of the
Mediterranean Fleet over the Italian Fleet off Cape Matapan
on March 28 1941. froim HMS
Formidable attacking heavy cruiser Pola: He joined HMS Hermes as a Midshipman
in 1939, qualified as observer in 1940 thence to 823 naval air squadron, HMS
Glorious. Then RNAS Dekheila, and 815 naval air squadron, at Maleme. In June
1941 he took part in a torpedo attack on the Vichy French flotilla leader
Chevalier Paul and the destroyer Guépard. Chevalier Paul was sunk, but Winter's
Swordfish was shot down. He and his pilot were picked up by Guépard, and became
PoWs of Vichy French, thence Italians in Rhodes.Winter was one of 50 British
PoWs who were exchanged for Dentz and his staff. In 1942, Air Signal
Officer at RNAS Arbroath, HMS Indomitable at Kilindini in East Africa, and at
HMS Bherunda, on Colombo racecourse in Ceylon. In May 1944 he joined the
carrier Illustrious for the air strikes against targets in Java. He finished
the war in Formidable, flagship of the British Pacific Fleet's carrier
squadron.
Daily
Telegraph, 27 August 1996
Lt-Commander Bobby WOOLRYCH, OBE, RN
Expert in fighter direction
Daily
Telegraph, 12 October 1999
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