Capt Lennox Napier DSO DSC RN
 

Died Donhead St Andrew, Wiltshire 19 August 2001.

The Independent Newspaper - 3 October 2001

After the Second World War, Napier assisted in writing the official history of the submarine war. He did not return to a submarine until 1953, having 

Captain Lennox Napier, a celebrated Naval officer who won the DSO and DSC in WW2 whilst for his courageous captaincy of the minelaying submarine Rorqual, post war held staff appointments in Australia and Singapore, as well as that of Executive Officer of the aircraft carrier Vengeance. 

Napier, who had been in the submarine service since 1934, took command of Rorqual, a Porpoise-class submarine in June 1941. With the capture of Crete, it was imperative that Malta did not fall into German hands. Under daily siege, Malta had to be supplied with both food and fuel for domestic purposes, as well as for its Fleet Air Arm and RAF squadrons fighting for the survival of the island. Admiral Andrew Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the British Naval Forces in the Mediterranean, boldly decided to use the Rorqual to get supplies to the island. On her first voyage to Malta, she carried a vital cargo of two tons of medical supplies, 62 tons of high-octane aviation spirit for the RAF's Hurricanes, 45 tons of cooking fuel and 25 passengers, as well as a crew of 59. In January 1943, Rorqual laid mines off the Tunis approach, one of which caused the loss of the  German ship Ankara, loaded with tanks for Rommel's Afrika Corps, followed by the Wilhelmsburg, sunk with two torpedoes at 2,500 yards in the Dardanelles approach.