Legal adviser to his fellow prisoners at Colditz who through skilful advocacy saved several from execution
Alan Campbell enjoyed a distinguished legal career which began informally but in deadly earnest when he was imprisoned in Colditz Castle for much of the war after having tried to escape several times from other prisoner-of-war camps. During his incarceration he used his newly acquired knowledge of the law to remarkable effect in providing brilliant defence arguments for many of his fellow prisoners who were tried on various serious charges.
He had been called to the Bar in May 1939 but left London immediately to begin his training as a Supplementary Reserve survey officer with the Royal Artillery. He went to France with the British Expeditionary Force in September 1939 and, after the onset of the German offensive in May 1940, was taken prisoner on the road between Béthune and St-Pol-sur-Ternoise.
A gruelling march to Trier was the first leg of the journey to Oflag VIIC at Laufen on the Austrian border, from where he made his first escape attempt by crawling boldly under the wire between two Spandau machinegun posts while a friend chatted to the sentries. A chance appearance of another German guard resulted in recapture so, after several further attempts, he was designated deutschfeindlich (hostile to the Germans) and sent to Oflag IVC, Colditz Castle in Saxony, in 1941.
With a small group of other British prisoners, he was later moved to Spangenberg near Kassel. This was also a castle but the drawbridge over the moat appeared to offer an escape route. Captain Jimmy Yule and Campbell chose a wild and blustery evening to cross the moat by way of the drain casing along the drawbridge. A falling stone attracted a sentry’s attention and several bursts of automatic fire. When the firing stopped, they dropped into the dry moat and surrendered. Both men were returned to Colditz, where they were to spend the rest of the war.
While Yule turned his attention to taking watch on the prisoners’ secret radio, Campbell put his legal training to use in advising those facing severe punishments under the German military penal code. He was unable to represent those arraigned officially, as it was the responsibility of the protecting power — Switzerland — to appoint a German lawyer to act in their defence, but he could advise each accused of his rights under international law, respected by the German authorities in these cases, and the tactics for the conduct of his defence. He produced guidelines, written in minute script, for each accused to follow when dealing with his defence lawyer, in particular keeping defence witnesses to a minimum and allowing no irrelevant diversions.
In all, he was associated with the defence of 42 accused prisoners, some facing the death penalty if found guilty. An early case was that of Flight Lieutenant Dominic Bruce, who had escaped from Spangenberg by picking a lock into a walled-off part of the castle, where he found a German officer’s uniform. His subsequent escape attempt failed and when put in a cell after recapture he kicked down the door.
Bruce was charged with breaking and entering, theft (of the uniform) and sabotage of state property (the cell door). The sabotage charge was especially serious, carrying a long prison sentence. Campbell constructed an argument for the defence that the acts committed by Bruce were solely in the execution of his duty to escape — an argument the Germans accepted under international law — and, as he had used no personal violence, he was not subject to charge under the military penal code. He also cited the case of the German fighter pilot Hauptmann Franz von Werra, who had escaped in Canada by jumping from a train near the St Lawrence river, stealing a boat and eventually reached the German consulate in New York in the then still-neutral United States. Bruce received a moderate sentence of three months in the Colditz cells.
Much more threatening were the cases of 13 Czech aircrew of the RAF who had been shot down and taken prisoner. Under a German law — enacted after the takeover of the country in March 1939 that made all subjects of Czechoslovakia “protected citizens” — they were charged with treason for bearing arms against the Reich. Campbell based their defence on a seven-point rebuttal of the treason charge: all were Czech by birth; they left Czechoslovakia immediately after the occupation; the Prague Parliament was not consulted before President Hacha invited Hitler to take over; Czechoslovakia was constituted as an independent state in 1918; and hence the validity of the German “protected citizens” law was questionable under both constitutional and international law; consequently the airmen could not be arraigned on a criminal charge under that law; and finally the airmen were wearing British uniform when captured and so had the rights of British citizens.
The German court ruled that the hearing of the cases should be postponed until after the end of hostilities.
Also under threat of a death sentence was Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Schaefer of the US Army who had been the senior officer in Stalag XX B at Schubin, in occupied Poland. There he had supported an American junior officer who had stood in the way of a German NCO posting up a notice announcing “Escaping is no longer a Game”. Under German military law any prisoner interfering with a German soldier carrying out his orders could be subject to court martial and sentenced to death if found guilty.
Schaefer was moved to Colditz to await trial and, having met Campbell there, applied for his trial to be held in Saxony. This request was refused but, just before he left for a court martial elsewhere on December 27, 1944, Campbell was able to brief him on how he should conduct his defence. Schaefer handled his defence well but was nevertheless sentenced to death and returned to Colditz. Campbell prepared an appeal and again was able to prolong the legal argument until Schaefer was saved by the end of the war.
Campbell resumed his legal career shortly after liberation in 1945. He took silk in 1965 and was consultant to the legal committee of the Council of Europe on Industrial Espionage, 1965-74, chairman of the legal research committee of the Society of Conservative Lawyers, 1968-80, and a recorder of the Crown Court, 1976-89. He was created a life peer in 1981 and served on the House of Lords Select Committee on Murder and Life Imprisonment, 1988-89, and was a member of the law advisory committee of the British Council, 1974-82.
In 1998 he became involved in the cases of two Scots Guardsmen, Jim Fisher and Mark Wright, who had been convicted of murder after an incident involving their patrol in Belfast in 1992, in which Peter McBride was shot and subsequently died. After the Guardsmen’s release from prison, he gave much time in advising on the preparation of their submission to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, with a view to gaining leave to appeal against their original conviction.
Both Guardsmen were released under licence in 1998 in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement and the Army Board decided to retain their services due to the exceptional circumstances. In recognition of his work in their cause, Campbell was elected to the Scots Guards Dining Club as a “perennial guest”.
Alan Robertson Campbell was the son of J. Kenneth Campbell. He was educated at Aldenham, L’Ecole des Sciences Politiques, Paris, and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. His first marriage, to Diana Watson-Smyth, was dissolved in 1953. His second wife, Vivien, the younger daughter of Commander A. H. de Krantzow, DSO, RN, died in 2010. In 2011 he married Dorothea, daughter of the late Colonel Edward and Lady Elizabeth Berwick. He is survived by his third wife and by a daughter from his first marriage.
Lord Campbell of Alloway, QC, prisoner and legal adviser in Colditz 1941-45 and a recorder of the Crown Court 1976-89, was born on May 24, 1917. He died on June 30, 2013, aged 96
Commander of the South Arabian army who strove to rein in its fractious elements during the turmoil of UK withdrawal from Aden
Jack Dye was not an obvious choice to command the South Arabian Federation’s Regular Army (FRA) — he did not speak Arabic and he had not previously served with Arab soldiers. But he had commanded a British battalion with success in Aden, until shortly before the Federation began to fall apart with the murder of the Speaker of the Federal Parliament, Sir Arthur Charles, in September 1965.
As Aden’s strategic value diminished with Britain’s withdrawal from Empire, UK governments struggled to find a structure to which political control might be transferred. A federation of Aden with the Western and Eastern protectorates, attractive from a Whitehall perspective, took scant account of cultural differences or tribal jealousies.
Dye’s predecessor had improved the training and equipment of the supposedly “detribalised” FRA, but six months after taking command in December 1966 Dye had to incorporate four battalions of the Federal National Guard (FNG), a loosely disciplined force in the tribal hinterland, to form the new South Arabian Army (SAA), due to assume security responsibility for the Protectorates a month after the merger.
The situation was not conducive to a carefully orchestrated union of the two forces. With the British 24 Brigade, the five FRA battalions were struggling to counter the National Liberation Front (NLF) campaign to suborn the up-country tribes, while the FNG manned isolated forts in their tribal areas. Both suffered from NLF penetration, putting their loyalty in question. Brigadier Dye got down to visiting his widely dispersed units, as he did so becoming increasingly aware of tribal prejudices as he worked on the future structure of the SAA.
The Federal Government took a close interest in the allocation of senior posts between the tribes, and insisted on a member of the Aulaqi tribe, Colonel Nasser Bureiq, being appointed Dye’s deputy and presumed successor after British withdrawal, despite his uncertain qualifications and the Aulaqis comprising less than 25 per cent of the combined force. Dye was on leave in Malta when the SAA came formally into existence on June 1, 1967, and two days later four of the six SAA colonels petitioned the Federal Government against appointing Bureiq as deputy commander. This so threatened SAA discipline that Dye advised the suspension of the colonels, precipitating a campaign of organised disobedience in the SAA that led to the defection of units in the Western Protectorate to the NLF.
Dye could not be faulted for the problems the FRA/FNG merger brought and it is doubtful whether his presence on June 1 would have prevented the colonels’ petition.
The situation deteriorated, and on June 20 SAA commanders thought they were under attack by British troops. Dye tried to allay their fears but to little effect, as the whole Federal structure had fault lines rendering it incapable of surviving a significant threat. When Britain pulled out of South Arabia in November 1967, the non-tribal, Marxist National Liberation Front won the battle for control, defeating the tribal-dominated “Front for the Liberation of South Yemen”.
Dye’s military career appeared not to suffer. He was advanced to CBE from OBE — appointed for his earlier regimental command in Aden — and after attending the 1968 course at the Imperial Defence College (later Royal College of Defence Studies) he was promoted major-general to become GOC Eastern District. This was one of the largest in the country with its headquarters at Colchester. From 1971 he was the Director of Volunteers, Territorial Army and Cadets in the MoD until his retirement from the Army in 1974.
Jack Bertie Dye was born in Great Yarmouth, the son of a police officer, and educated locally. He was commissioned into the Royal Norfolk Regiment in 1940 and won the Military Cross for his gallantry and inspiring leadership of C Company of the 1st Battalion in an attack on Kervenheim in Germany in March 1945. In the postwar years, he served in regimental and staff appointments in Germany, Egypt and Hong Kong and as an instructor at the School of Infantry, Warminster. He was a major for 15 years — not unusual for those of his generation promoted early during the war — until taking command of 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, formed from the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Regiments, in 1962.
In retirement he devoted time to charities, was Colonel of the Royal Anglian Regiment, 1976-82, and vice-Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, 1983-94.
He is survived by his wife, Jean, and two daughters.
Major-General J. B. Dye, CBE, MC, Commander of the South Arabian Army 1967, was born on December 13, 1919. He died on June 10, 2013, aged 93
>Commander Eddie Grenfell
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Wartime sailor who won a long campaign for a medal to recognise veterans of the gruelling Arctic convoys
Against persistent political opposition, “Eddie” Grenfell led the movement to introduce a medal to be awarded to all those who took part in Arctic convoys to Murmansk in Russia during the Second World War.
Arctic convoy sailors were already entitled to the Atlantic Star, but the particular conditions of Russian convoys during a campaign that lasted from August 1941 to May 1945 underlined the need for special recognition. While 104 merchant ships and 22 Allied warships were lost to German attacks as well as to mines and other disasters, it was the darkness, gales and ice in winter and the vulnerability during 24 hours of daylight in summer that is most remembered by the veterans.
Many hundreds of tanks, crated aircraft and lorries with thousands of tons of war stores and ammunition were thus supplied to a Soviet Union which for political reasons initially seemed ungrateful. But Russia has recently awarded medals for service in defence of the Soviet Arctic which British sailors are now entitled to wear.
Grenfell joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve at the outbreak of war, trained as an electrician, and was sent to sea, first in the cruiser Edinburgh, and then the merchant ship Empire Lawrence. Here he operated and maintained the ship’s early model radar set, required by her role as a Catapult Armed Merchant Ship or “CAM Ship”, carrying one Sea Hurricane fighter.
Desperate conditions required desperate remedies. Empire Lawrence, in the large 36-ship Convoy PQ16, flew off her Hurricane against attacks by Junkers88 bombers on May 26, 1942, shooting down one and damaging another. With no carrier present, the practice was for the pilot to bale out and be recovered from the sea.
When Empire Lawrence’s radar was damaged by bomb splinters, Grenfell gallantly volunteered to climb the mast to carry out a repair, even under further air attacks. Afterwards, he scrambled to the deck past a jagged hole where the mast had been hit. He was rewarded with a tot of what he called “the best of Jamaica’s golden liquid” and the ship’s master promised that he would be recommended for bravery in the face of the enemy.
The convoy was attacked the next day by up to 100 Junkers88s, sinking five ships, one of which was the Empire Lawrence which blew up with a huge explosion. Grenfell recalled the attack “as if it were just yesterday”.
“I flew through the air surrounded by large chunks of steel, one that looked like the ship’s funnel, hitting the water and going down very deep, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself faced with a swirling black turmoil instead of the green sea I had expected. With my lungs close to bursting, I prayed, even argued, with my Maker.”
He was rescued and spent some weeks as a guest of the Russians at Murmansk, fitted out with a Russian uniform and a fur hat and fed on pork fat and weak tea. Recovered from bruising and frostbite, he was repatriated in the destroyer Hussar.
After the war, his career included a transfer to the regular Navy as an electrical officer, a posting ashore in Australia, service in the cruiser Leander, the destroyer Armada and various technical jobs in the electrical school and Portsmouth dockyard. His service in the submarine depot HMS Dolphin entitled him to the coveted submariners’ double-dolphin brooch.
At commander’s rank, Grenfell’s final tour was as assistant naval attaché (technical) in Bonn, Germany, for three years, retiring in 1966. Remaining in Germany, he set up an import-export business which ran for 15 years until he was seriously injured when hit by a car, which limited his activities to gardening and to acting as a tour guide.
After his final retirement, he began his campaign, noting that the British seemed less grateful to Arctic sailors than the Russians and emphasising to officials that Russian convoys were entirely distinctive, geographically quite separate from the Atlantic and nothing to do with the operational aims of the Atlantic battle — the defeat of the U-boat and British survival.
He and other survivors were scornful of the Blair Government’s proposal for the award of a lapel badge in 2006, likening it to “something you find at the bottom of a cornflakes packet”. Grenfell went further: “Mr Blair effectively told us we were a great bunch of fellows but there was a limit to what he could do and we would have to be happy with a badge. I am not satisfied. The only way that a campaign, especially one as dreadful as the Arctic one, goes down in history is by a medal. A badge means nothing.”
In December 2012 Grenfell’s persistence won out. Sadly, he was too ill to travel himself to Downing Street for an award ceremony in March this year, but received his medal in the Lord Mayor’s parlour in Portsmouth from the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards.
Grenfell thanked David Cameron for his personal letter and his part in achieving success for the veterans: “He always supported our claim but was hampered by Civil Service bureaucracy, just as I was. I’m just sad that so many of my colleagues are no longer with us.”
Grenfell married Beryl Hodgkins in 1942 and was divorced in 1967. He was married to Irene Haneberg from 1968 until 1974, and is survived by two daughters of the first marriage.
Commander Eddie Grenfell, sailor, was born on January 17, 1920. He died on June 28, 2013, aged 93
Chindit veteran who led an exhausted company of Gurkhas in a victory against a far larger enemy force
John Lucas could claim, although he seldom did, that he had returned from death or at least from pretty close to it. Contracting sandfly fever in deep jungle during the second Chindit operation, he had to be abandoned with a full water-bottle and his revolver. Miraculously, he came round after two days and managed to catch up his column and continue on the line of march.
Some military historians still denigrate Major-General Orde Wingate’s two long-range penetration operations in Burma as a waste of high quality troops in a gamble that caused the Japanese little more than inconvenience. Whatever else, they proved that British, Gurkha and West African troops, suitably trained, could operate successfully against the Japanese, disproving the myth that the enemy were unbeatable automatons.
The first Chindit operation, “Longcloth”, conducted by a brigade commanded by Wingate in early 1943 had proved the technique, but the long march in eight columns had taken its toll. The second operation in early 1944 was conducted by six brigades, all but one of them flown in by gliders or — once adequate landing strips had been prepared — by transport aircraft.
Lucas was a platoon commander with 3/6th Gurkha Rifles, one of four battalions of the 77th LRP Brigade commanded by Brigadier Mike Calvert (obituary, November 28, 1998). His was the first brigade to be flown by gliders 200 miles into north Burma and establish one of two “strongholds” from which the 77th and follow-up brigades would operate against the Japanese.
Situated south of Myitkyina where the Japanese railway supply line supporting their operations against the 5th Chinese Army in north Burma joined the Irrawaddy, the strongholds of “Broadway” and “White City” were tactically placed close to the enemy’s vital lines of communication.
After a last-minute change of plan because of obstructions sighted on the glider landing zone codenamed “Piccadilly”, the gliders of 77th Brigade flew into the alternative Broadway. Of the 54 gliders that took off, 37 landed or crash-landed there. Thirty men were killed and 21 injured but the first brigade was down and the operation launched. Once established in their stronghold at Broadway, elements of the 77th Brigade including 3/6th Gurkha Rifles moved out to block the road and railway at Mawlu on the railway just to the north of Indaw. All appeared to be progressing well but on March 27 Wingate was killed when his light aircraft crashed in the jungle.
Without Wingate’s dominant personality to protect the ethos of guerrilla-style operations against Japanese lines of communications, pressure from the American General “Vinegar-Joe” Stilwell commanding the Chinese 5th Army in north Burma resulted in the 77th and 111th Brigades being ordered north towards Mogaung to ease pressure on Stilwell’s Chinese.
The march north was gruelling, with monsoon rain drenching the men and turning jungle tracks into torrents. It was during this exhausting trek north that Lucas went down with sandfly fever. The strongholds with their daily casualty evacuation flights were by then left far behind, battle casualties and the sick had to be abandoned if unable to walk. Left in a foxhole to fend for himself, Lucas came out of his coma after two days and staggered on to rejoin his column. His appearance, haggard and close to collapse, was greeted with incredulity.
Calvert’s orders were to get 77 Brigade to Mogaung, thought to be weakly held, and carry out a detailed reconnaissance. On May 21, he reported Mogaung held by some 4,000 enemy, more than four times the strength of his own seriously depleted brigade.
During the approach march, Lucas was wounded in the arm in an attack on Natyigon, south of Mogaung, but took over command of A Company of his battalion when the company commander was more seriously injured.
On May 27 Calvert was ordered to take Moguang despite the enemy’s reported greater strength and well prepared positions. The attack was launched on June 24 with Lucas promoted to major to command A Company 3/6th Gurkhas. The bitter struggle between the near-exhausted Chindits and an enemy in well-prepared positions in and around Moguang lasted until June 27. The price of the Chindit victory was appalling; 250 men were killed and many more wounded.
The citation for the award of the Military Cross to Lucas covering his action at Natyigon and the attack on Moguang, stated that his leadership under intense artillery and mortar fire was beyond praise. Lucas was also mentioned in despatches in April 1945.
John George Anderson Lucas was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and educated at Mayfield. Commissioned into the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, he was seconded to the 6th Gurkha Rifles for the Burma campaign and served with the 3rd Battalion until the end of the war in South-East Asia.
After demobilisation, he joined the family furnishing business. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, a son and two daughters. Another daughter died in infancy and a son predeceased him.
Major John Lucas, MC, Chindit veteran, was born on April 25, 1921. He died on May 24, 2013, aged 92
Pilot who took part in the D-Day landings, flew into Singapore after the Japanese surrender and later served in Rhodesia and Cyprus
John Smith was one of those who, through eagerness to serve their country, were economical as to their true date of birth. He saw active service over Europe where he was part of the Air Spotting Pool for the D-Day landings and in the Pacific where he was one of the first into Singapore after the Japanese surrender.
He later played key roles in the oil lift associated with the Beira blockade of Rhodesia (as it then was) following the Ian Smith Unilateral Declaration of Independence, and in the aftermath of the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. He flew a wide range of aircraft, from the naval Seafire to Canberras, Valiants and Victors. His final posting was as Air Officer Administration at Strike Command, High Wycombe.
Born in Uckfield, East Sussex, in 1924, John Edward Smith joined the RAF in November 1941 as an engineering trainee, but was soon selected for pilot training. A shortage of training capacity in the RAF resulted in his accepting Royal Naval flying training and subsequent assignment to the Fleet Air Arm. After advanced training in Canada he converted to the Seafire at Henstridge, near Yeovil, home of the Fleet Air Arm. He then joined the newly formed 886 Squadron after carrier landing training in the Clyde.
In the Mediterranean he flew from HMS Attacker whose Seafires provided air cover for the Salerno landings. He was flying a reconnaissance sortie over Axis-held territory north of Orvieto using a requisitioned Italian light aircraft, when he was fired on by German air defences. Flying low and fast but otherwise unscathed, he and his observer returned to their forward operating base to report their discovery. At dawn next morning Smith led a formation of six heavily armed Seafires to attack that enemy airfield. After returning to the UK with his squadron for the D-Day landings he participated in extensive air sweeps and strafing of enemy positions and armament trains before rejoining Attacker.
When VJ was declared he was one of the first pilots to land in Singapore. He later recalled how those assigned to the initial wave had been selected because they were young and had no children — reflecting fear that the Japanese might have booby-trapped the runway.
After rejoining the RAF Smith flew Canberras at Binbrook and Gütersloh in Germany, becoming a qualified flying instructor, and was awarded the Air Force Cross. He then converted to the first of the V-Bombers, the Valiant. He was Officer Commanding 90 Squadron at RAF Honington specialising in air-to-air refueling when fatigue problems resulted in all Valiants being withdrawn from service in 1964. He then became officer commanding of a squadron of Victors, also in the tanker role.
He was on a course at RAF Manby when he was deployed with only hours notice to Zambia where he played a major role in the oil airlift. He was next posted in 1966 to Singapore as Wing Commander (Organisation) at the headquarters of the Far Eastern Air Force where he was promoted to become Group Captain (Org). The organisational skills for which he was so highly regarded ensured the smooth run down of bases in Malaya.
Despite his seniority, he managed to clock up a remarkable number of flying hours by virtue of having retained his qualification as a flying instructor. This continued throughout his next posting when he was appointed as Station Commander of RAF Marham in 1970. He claimed an unofficial record for the number of flying hours achieved by a senior commander. In 1974 he was posted as Air Officer Administration, Headquarters Near East Air Force (NEAF), in Cyprus, to meet the challenges created by the Turkish invasion.
He was always at the heart of mess life. His prowess in mess rugby was legendary. At a guest night in Akrotiri, it was “Big John” who emerged bloody but unbowed from beneath a pile of bodies. He was promptly taken on one side by the Commander British Forces Near East and banned from further participation since he was far too valuable to risk having him damaged. When his flying career was over he sought treatment for a war wound in one ankle that he had been self-treating. He had got away with it all those years by never removing his socks during medicals.
After a short spell as Director of Recruiting in 1977, he was promoted to air vice-marshal and appointed as Air Officer Administration at HQ Strike Command in High Wycombe.
In retirement after 1981 he moved to Milton Keynes, where he administered a small woodworking company that, among other things, produced bespoke wooden propellers for vintage aircraft.
He is survived by his wife, Rose-Anne, a former Wren and by four sons and two daughters. His eldest son predeceased him.
Air Vice-Marshal John Smith, CB, CBE, AFC, AOA Strike Command, 1977-81, was born on June 8, 1924. He died on June 22, 2013, aged 89
Skipper of the destroyer Glamorgan in the thick of the Falklands conflict
From Chief Cadet Captain at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, to captaincy of the guided-missile destroyer Glamorgan in the 1982 Falklands conflict, Mike Barrow, a man with a rugby forward’s build and a wide smile, was universally admired for his integrity, insistence on high standards, professional thoroughness and “firm but fair” leadership style. In conditions of extreme stress while under Argentine attack off the Falkland Islands, Barrow’s composure and calmness were notably reassuring to his people. “The captain is a tower of strength, he always looks so calm and collected,” recorded a shipmate.
On the second day of the Falklands campaign, Glamorgan, with the frigates Arrow and Alacrity, was instructed to bombard Port Stanley airfield. They were attacked with bombs by the Argentine Air Force, which, luckily, missed. Thereafter a demanding pattern comprised bombardments by night, a rush away at dawn to form the protective screen around the vital aircraft carriers Invincible and Hermes, and several special operations. Among these last was gunfire support for the bold attack by the Special Air Service, which destroyed ten aircraft on Pebble Island airstrip in East Falkland, and a spoofing operation designed to mislead Argentine land forces about the venue for the invasion.
On June 12, two days before the Argentine surrender, Glamorgan was hit at dawn by a land-based Exocet missile fired from near Port Harriet. A previously unsuccessful firing had warned the British about this tactic and lines defining the danger area were drawn on charts. In order to give further gunfire support to 45 Commando Royal Marines in their difficult attack on the Two Sisters feature, Barrow had held on a little longer than planned. The Exocet just reached Glamorgan as she turned evasively away, hitting the corner of the flight deck and hanger, destroying the helicopter, starting a large fire and killing 13 men.
One of these was the captain’s secretary and Flight Deck Officer, Lieutenant David Tinker whose father subsequently published his son’s poignant poetry and letters, decrying the waste and wickedness of war. His book A Message From the Falklands (Penguin) was widely read.
Barrow was awarded the DSO.
The son of a naval captain, his early career followed a conventional pattern with service mainly in destroyers in various parts of the world but including a tour in the Royal Yacht Britannia in 1954-56 and subsequently a post as Flag Lieutenant to the Commodore, Hong Kong.
He then had an unusual number of commands; the minesweepers Caunton and Laleston and the frigates Mohawk, Torquay and Diomede and then second-in-command at Dartmouth. Promoted to captain in 1974, he was deputy director of recruiting in the Admiralty and assistant chief of staff (operations) to the Nato commander Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe.
Having been an ADC to the Queen and a Gentleman Usher to her Majesty he was appointed CVO in 2002.
He is survived by his wife, Judith, and their two sons and daughter.
Captain Michael Barrow, CVO, DSO, sailor, was born on May 21, 1932. He died on April 28, 2013, aged 80
