Naval aviator who was twice decorated for his exceptional wartime service in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean
Anthony Tuke joined the Air Branch of the Royal Navy in 1938 and became known known throughout the Fleet Air Arm as “Steady” Tuke, a sobriquet arising from a flying instructor’s judgement of his early performance. His exceptional service as a naval aviator saw him surviving four and a half years continuously in the front line, clocking up 110 operations, three forced landings and being awarded two DSCs.
On completion of pilot training in April 1940, he joined 826 Squadron which was the first to be equipped with the Fairey Albacore, supposedly a replacement for the antiquated “Stringbag” Swordfish.
Also a biplane and obsolescent at birth, the Albacore incorporated a number of improvements including an enclosed cockpit, but while flying cover for the Dunkirk evacuations and mounting a series of attacks on ports in Belgium, Holland and France was, unsurprisingly, shown to be easy meat for modern German Messerschmitt Bf109 fighters, 826 Squadron losing several aircraft.
While bombing by day the invasion barges at Calais in September, Tuke’s aircraft was heavily damaged by a fighter, his observer and telegraphist air gunner were both badly wounded. He was awarded his first DSC at the age of 19 for these operations.
The squadron joined the carrier Formidable in December and sailed round the Cape to the Suez Canal, her aircraft attacking Italian forces at Mogadishu and Massawa on the way.
In March 1941 Formidable took part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in which the Italians lost three heavy cruisers and two destroyers in night gun actions. Albacores and Swordfish had repeatedly attacked the Italian fleet with torpedoes, hitting the battleship Vittorio Veneto but not stopping her. A Swordfish from Crete initiated Italian losses by immobilising the cruiser Pola. One 826 Squadron Albacore and its crew were lost.
Formidable and 826 Squadron were next involved in bombardment spotting for battleships off Tripoli and covering convoys to and from Greece. In May they supported the vital Operation Tiger convoy to Alexandria carrying tanks and crated Hurricane fighters for the Eighth Army.
During the evacuation of Crete Formidable was attacked by Ju87 Stukas and severely damaged. With no aircraft carriers left in the Eastern Mediterranean, Tuke was deployed into the desert in support of the army until required with a few Swordfish to rejoin the partially repaired Formidable on her voyage to America.
Back in England, he was appointed senior pilot of 819 Squadron and in July 1942 was seconded to Coastal Command for three months of night operations, bombing and mining European ports. The Squadron embarked in the escort carrier Archer in February 1943 and provided anti-Uboat cover for two Atlantic convoys.
Promoted to acting lieutenant-commander (A), Tuke, now 22, was appointed commanding officer of 851 Squadron and took passage to America in the liner Queen Mary. His squadron formed at the US naval air station at Squantum, Massachusetts, with 12 Grumman Avenger torpedo bombers.
In January 1944 these embarked in the American-built escort carrier Shah, allocated to the Eastern Fleet. Having made passage to Colombo via Australia, the carrier was employed on trade protection in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal.
Tuke was awarded a bar to his DSC for his part in co-operation with the frigate Findhorn and the Indian sloop Godavari in sinking U198 near the Seychelles. This U-boat from La Pallice in France had recently sunk four merchant ships in the Indian Ocean; there were no survivors.
In July Tuke suffered an engine failure and had to ditch, being rescued by a native dug-out catamaran fishing boat. He returned home in November 1944 and joined the deck landing training school as Lieutenant-Commander (Flying), and married the captain’s secretary, Third Officer Frances Harvey WRNS. His final tour was in command of 783 Squadron, a motley collection of aircraft types used for signal and radar training.
Tuke was placed on the retired list “medically unfit due to war service” in September 1948. He worked as group secretary for the Essex branch of the National Farmers Union for 35 years and was a governor of Woodbridge School. He was also a Lay Tax Commissioner from 1980 to 1984.
He is survived by his wife Frances and their two sons.
Lieutenant-Commander Anthony Tuke, DSC and Bar, naval aviator, was born on December 28, 1920. He died on August 15, 2010, aged 89
Wartime pilot who flew many hazardous combat missions and became a senior judge in Northern Ireland
On the evening of March 27, 1943, the escort carrier Dasher, exercising in the Clyde, recovered her last aircraft, a Fairey Swordfish. Its observer, Lieutenant Robert Babington, DSC, alighted and was reporting to the flying office when a massive explosion ripped off the stern of the ship which immediately took a list and began to settle.
Still wearing his flying and life jackets, Babington walked calmly across the flight deck and into the sea. Fortunately he entered the water on the windward side because many men downwind were subsequently engulfed in flames from burning aviation fuel; 379 men were lost and only 149 survived.
Robert John Babington was born in Dublin in 1920. His father, a solicitor, and his mother had both served in France in the Great War. Educated at Saint Columba’s College, he was reading history at Trinity College Dublin when war broke out. Volunteering for the Fleet Air Arm he was trained as an observer and posted to Alexandria.
Arriving in late May 1941, he was told to report to the fleet carrier Formidable which immediately sailed for the battle of Crete. As Formidable had already lost most of her aircraft, Babington was ordered to the bridge where he manned a telephone. Here he had a grandstand view of the day’s action, of the admiral fighting his fleet and the captain fighting his ship. During this first experience of war he remembered being more scared of getting in the way than of the enemy. Three bombs hit Formidable and she returned to Alexandria with many casualties.
Babington then joined 805 Squadron at Gaza from where they were soon sent to cover the allied invasion of Vichy French controlled Syria. His Fulmar aircraft was involved in a dogfight with a French fighter and suffered some damage, but he did not believe that the French pilot was serious about killing them.
Babington was then posted to 815 Squadron in North Africa where he and his pilot, an Ulsterman called “Doc” Stewart, carried out antisubmarine and anti-ship patrols in their Swordfish, attacking four U-Boats and bombing and mining harbours. For this Babington was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. On one patrol they were caught in a storm and, battling their way back, ran out of fuel and ditched 20 miles from land. They took to their dinghy and spent 2½ days at sea before drifting ashore.
In support of the Army they bombed and strafed enemy troop positions at night. In order to prevent detonation deep in the desert sand a 12-inch metal rod was affixed to the front of their 500lb bombs. On one occasion, returning from a raid where they had failed to locate a worthwhile target, their fully armed Swordfish landed in soft sand and began to bury itself as it progressed along the landing strip. As the bombs with the rods affixed got closer to the ground and oblivion loomed Babington remembered thinking “what a pity” — but the aircraft came to a halt with less than six inches to spare.
On another occasion, ordered to drop by parachute a package containing secret radio codes into the besieged troops in Tobruk at night, Babington dispatched the small parachute only to see it wrap around the tail of the aircraft. As they flew in circles in an attempt to shake it off the Germans opened up with all they had. In some desperation they landed in the dark and handed over the package to an officer. They then breakfasted upon “Sidi Barrani fritters” (fried bully beef) and rum before taking off at first light.
Posted home, Babington took part in two cross-channel raids dropping mines in French ports. After the Dasher tragedy, about which the survivors were ordered to say nothing, he was involved in night fighter work and was preparing for the Far East when the war ended.
Back at Trinity, Babington completed his degree and elected for the law. He was called to the London Bar and began in Northern Ireland. Involved in both civil and criminal work, he took silk and became Senior Crown Prosecutor in Belfast.
In 1974 he became a County Court Judge for Fermanagh and Tyrone and after ten years moved to North Down. Serving through the worst of the Troubles he presided over many Diplock courts where he heard terrorist cases without a jury; as with other members of the judiciary his life was constantly under threat. Always with an interest in current affairs, he served as a Unionist MP in the Stormont Parliament, 1969-72. In retirement he enjoyed golf, walking and bird watching.
His wife Bryanna, whom he met at Trinity where her father was Provost, died in 2000. He is survived by two sons and a daughter.
His Honour Robert Babington, DSC, former Northern Ireland judge and politician, was born on April 9, 1920. He died on September 12, 2010, aged 90
Coldstream Guards officer who overcame polio to win the MC in the battle of Ornito
In spite of contracting polio at the age of six which left him with a shortened leg and required visits to consultants throughout his childhood, Stephen Whitwell joined the OTC after going to Oxford, in 1939, and secured him a commission in the Coldstream Guards, joining the the regiment in December 1940. From January 1943 he served in North Africa, including Tunisia, and thereafter in Italy during a miserably cold winter in 1944 when his physical endurance was particularly tested.
At the battle of Ornito in mountainous conditions, the citation for his Military Cross details the way in which his platoon bore the brunt of a double attack during the first part of which he “played a leading part with a Thompson sub-machinegun and grenades”. He “later led his platoon into the assault with complete disregard for his personal safety and was largely responsible for clearing the enemy from the hill and taking 20 prisoners”.
Unable to lead a second assault because his legs had given up, he nonetheless directed the action, so that further success was achieved. He remained with the Army until February 1947 being stationed for a time in Austria. The controversial repatriation of Cossacks back to the Soviet Union happening at this time concerned him all his life.
Stephen John Whitwell was born in Darlington in 1920 the eldest son of a successful solicitor. Because of his limp, his parents chose to send him to Stowe rather than to the more sport-minded Uppingham to which both his younger brothers went. Urged by his history tutor at Stowe, he went up to Christ Church, Oxford, in October 1939 and had an enjoyable year. Though he chose not to return to Oxford after the war, he was awarded a degree and then sat the examination for the Foreign Service, as it then was.
In 1947 he was sent to Tehran which he found chaotic, but across which he was able to travel widely, and in 1949 to Belgrade. In 1952 he was sent to New Delhi, possibly his favourite posting. After a posting to Seoul in 1961 he was appointed in 1964 Political Adviser to the Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, in Aden, where he witnessed the fraught ending of Britain’s involvement.
He returned to Belgrade as a Counsellor in 1965, and his diplomatic his career culminated in his being appointed Ambassador to Somalia from 1968 to 1970. He was appointed CMG in 1969.
Retiring in 1971, and moving to Aston Tirrold in Oxfordshire, he became involved in many local activities, including the renovation of Wallingford Museum, membership of the British Institute of Persian Studies and the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust.
He never married, but the unofficial guardianship of the two sons of a diplomatic colleague gave him great pleasure.
Stephen Whitwell, CMG, MC, diplomat, was born on July 31, 1920. He died on October 6, 2010, aged 90
Highly skilled ‘batsman’ whose judgment enabled thousands of planes to safe landings on aircraft carriers
Donald Macqueen had an unusual career as a naval aviator. As a Deck Landing Control Officer (DLCO) he “batted” more pilots on to aircraft carriers and airfield dummy deck landings (known as ADDLs) than anyone. He controlled over 20,000 carrier landings and 200,000 ADDLs. Most of these were amassed in the United States, where, between 1943 and 1945, he was responsible for the training of some 900 pilots, mostly sub-lieutenants RNVR, both ashore and afloat in American carriers, in the art of deck landing Corsair fighters and Avenger torpedo bombers. These were the outstanding carrier aircraft that became the backbone of Fleet Air Arm operations in the latter part of the war, particularly in the Pacific.
The “batsman” stands at the port after end of the carriers’ flight deck, shielded by a windbreak and with a sometimes very necessary escape net below him. Using his bats, his gestures control the height, attitude and speed of the approaching aircraft and it is his judgment which determines the safety of the landing or whether the pilot should be “waved off”. It was also Macqueen’s judgment whether a pilot, perhaps after a hundred ADDL’s, was ever going to make the front line. He was also responsible for training DLCO’s to accompany the squadrons embarking for operations. He was appointed MBE in 1945.
Donald Gordon Macqueen entered the Navy in November 1940 aged 20 and by the end of 1941 was a Swordfish pilot in 810 Squadron. Tellingly, in the light of later experience, his diary records the desperate pressures of the time: “10 March 1942. Made my first landing ever on a carrier. Not so very difficult.” This was in the fleet carrier Illustrious which was fully operational and on her way via Freetown to Madagascar. Later, on March 29 he wrote: “I did the dusk patrol and made my first night landing. Had difficulty but caught the last wire after several approaches.”
Illustrious, with the carrier Indomitable, battleship Ramillies and others, took part in Operation Ironclad, the Battle of Madagascar. Japanese aircraft carriers had driven the British out of the eastern Indian Ocean and it was feared that Japanese submarines would use Madagascar’s ports and threaten the supply line to the Suez Canal and Eighth Army. Held by the Vichy French who were not likely to defend Madagascar adequately, Diego Suarez was assaulted against considerable resistance on May 5, 1942 by British Army and Royal Marines units, supported by the carrier air groups, dropping bombs, attacking shipping and shooting down French fighters. The island was eventually taken over by South African forces.
Macqueen returned home in July and was sent to the training naval air station at Worthy Down near Winchester. Although slated to join an Avenger squadron, his particular aptitude as a DLCO was noticed and shaped his subsequent service.
After the war Macqueen served as DLCO in the carriers Ocean, Theseus and Vengeance. While in Vengeance in 1950 he was allowed to transfer to the Royal Navy from the RNVR. He commanded 768 Squadron at Eglinton in Northern Ireland. A particularly enjoyable tour, from 1952 to 1954, was on the British Joint Services Mission in Washington where he renewed friendships with American aviators and was the flag lieutenant and personal pilot to the admiral. A tour on the staff of the amphibious warfare school was followed by two years based in Singapore on the command intelligence staff.
He retired from the navy at his own request in 1960 and became the commercial manager of the travel company Skyways Ltd and from 1963 sales manager for Britannia Airways Ltd and managing director of their Air Broking subsidiary. From 1967 he was for six years the aviation director for Clarkson’s Holidays where he was elected, among other activities, to the Tour Operators Council of ABTA and was active in dealings with British Airports and Civil Aviation authorities and government departments. His own consultancy flourished until 1976.
His survived by his wife Angela, whom he married in 1953 and by their two sons and daughter.
Lieutenant-Commander Donald Macqueen, MBE, naval aviator and businessman, was born on November 12, 1920. He died on September 1, aged 89
