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Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Troup

Vice-Admiral Sir Tony Troup, who died on July 8 aged 86, became the youngest-ever submarine captain when he took command, at 21 years 10 months, of the training submarine H32 in June 1943.

Just a few months later he was given command of Strongbow, based at Trincomalee, Ceylon. Operations had been largely restricted to patrols, air-sea rescue and the landing and recovery of agents; but Troup sank the 800-ton coaster Toso Maru off Phuket with a single torpedo on his first eastern patrol. He then sank or drove ashore nine junks, a tug and two lighters with gunfire and by boarding and placing demolition charges.

The next patrol, however, brought mixed results. On October 11, in the Malacca Strait, Troup attacked a merchant ship which was being escorted by two sub-chasers, firing five torpedoes at a range of 3,000 yards. Two exploded prematurely and the others missed; then, before he could renew the attack, he found himself in shallow water.

Next day Troup encountered two Japanese submarines in quick succession. He fired four torpedoes at Ro113 from 2,500 yards; all of them missed. Half an hour later two more were launched at Ro115 from 4,500 yards; these too missed. Reloading his one remaining bow torpedo, Troup sank the 1,185-ton cargo ship Manryo Maru at close range.

A week later he was ordered to take up position off the Nicobar Islands for air-sea rescue duties during a carrier-borne air attack by the Eastern Fleet. As the raid ended, he fired his stern torpedo into the harbour, where it was caught by torpedo nets.

In November Troup patrolled the west coast of Sumatra, sinking a tug and a lighter by gunfire and carrying out a successful re-supply operation to coast watchers. On the last day of the month he found and sank three junks close inshore, claiming 33 hits with 36 rounds from his 3-in gun while coming under shell-fire from shore batteries.

Troup made one last patrol in the same seas at the end of the year, then sailed to the southern Malacca Strait. A couple of weeks later he sank a junk and was depth-charged in response, though there was no damage. Three days later he was less lucky: Strongbow was trapped in shallow water by several anti-submarine vessels and subjected to close and effective depth charge attack.

When Troup took tea after the war with Commander Tetsunoke Moriama, his Japanese opponent told him that after eight hours of continual bombardment he was sure that Strongbow had been sunk. Troup admitted: "They gave me a very bad time, and I was considerably dusted up."

Many of Strongbow'srivets had popped and the pressure hull had collapsed inwards; the main engines had been blown off their beds; the air compressors had been smashed and the torpedoes jammed in the tubes. He crept into a known minefield, where he knew he would not be pursued, then nursed his boat for 1,000 miles across the Indian Ocean to Trincomalee. There the base engineers pronounced the boat unfit for further service. Troup was awarded a Bar to an earlier DSC.

John Anthony Rose Troup was born into a naval family on July 18 1921. He was educated at HMS Worcester, the nautical training college on the Thames, and entered Dartmouth in 1936. His father had been boxing champion at Dartmouth and insisted that Tony should take up the sport (he consented, but was regularly beaten and grew to hate it). After service in the cruiser Cornwall and the destroyer Active in the Far East and the Atlantic, Troup volunteered for submarines in 1941.

He joined the newly built Turbulent, commanded by Commander "Tubby" Linton, which was part of the Fighting 10th Submarine Flotilla. In 1942, after 254 days in the Mediterranean, nearly half of them submerged, Turbulent was estimated to have sunk a cruiser, a destroyer, a
U-boat, and 28 supply ships totalling 100,000 tons; it had been depth charged more than 250 times.

Troup was mentioned in dispatches while in Turbulent, but had left to do his "perisher" course for submarine commanders when Linton was lost on its next patrol. His first DSC was announced on the same page of the London Gazette as Linton's posthumous VC.

After Troup had limped home in Strongbow, he commanded three more submarines in the post-war years: Tantalus, Trump and Tally Ho. He was second-in-command of the Royal Navy's first angled-deck aircraft carrier, Victorious, from 1956 to 1959, and then held three influential appointments as naval assistant to the First Sea Lord, captain of the 3rd Submarine Squadron, and Captain of the Fleet in 1964-65.

He returned to the Far East as captain of the amphibious assault ship Intrepid, then became became Flag Officer Sea Training, demanding the highest standards of efficiency in all the ships sent to him at Portland.

As Commander Far East Fleet Troup took the salute at a steam past to mark the end of the Anglo-Malaysian defence pact and the start of the Five-Power Defence Agreement in 1971. When he was appointed Flag Officer Submarines, aged 50, he insisted on making an inaugural ascent in the new underwater escape tower at Gosport. His last appointment was as Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland.

For his retirement Troup acquired a crofthouse at Portchuillin, which enabled him to indulge his passion for golf at the Lochcarron club. He also owned a series of boats called Seil, the last and smallest of which was a Devon yawl which he sailed until his children banned him after he fell overboard. He was elected
to the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1964.

Troup joined the board of the shipbuilder Vosper Thornycroft and, from 1979 to 1988, was defence adviser to Scicon International. He was president of the Submarine Old Comrades' Association.

Tony Troup, who was appointed KCB in 1975, wanted no memorial service and left no papers, but recorded an oral history for the Imperial War Museum.

He married, in 1943, Joy Gordon-Smith. The marriage was dissolved in 1952, and the next year he married Cordelia Hope, who survives him with two sons and a daughter of the first marriage and two sons and a daughter of the second.

Lt-Cdr Jack Smart DSO, MBE

(A Naval Officer who took part in daring midget submarine operations.)

Lieutenant-Commander Jack Smart, who has died aged 91, took part in two of the most daring midget submarine operations of the Second World War.

After minesweeper service in the eastern Mediterranean when war broke out, he joined HMS Varbel, the midget submarine training depot in Scotland in 1943, and was given command of X-8 for Operation Source, the attack on German ships hiding in the Norwegian fjords. Six X-craft were towed underwater across the Norwegian Sea, where X-8's target was the German cruiser Lützow. However, at 0400 on September 15, the craft took a sudden deep dive, and the towline to the parent boat Seanymph broke.

Smart blew the main ballast tanks to force the craft to the surface, but on doing so found no sign of Seanymph. Deciding to continue at a maximum speed of three knots on course for Altenfjord, he hoped to be rescued but, if not, was determined to carry out his attack on his own.

Twelve hours later Smart chanced on the submarine Stubborn, towing X-7, and continued in company with them until dark. Next morning the sea was empty. But Lieutenant J Oakley, commanding Seanymph, continued his search and in the afternoon he spotted X-8, and took it in tow. Smart had been on his own for 37 weary hours and was transferred exhausted to the parent submarine.

Subsequently when X-8 developed leaks in its high-pressure air system and was unable to dive, its explosive charges were jettisoned, but the resulting detonation so damaged the craft that it had to be scuttled.

Smart was appointed MBE for his efforts while Lieutenant Godfrey Place (X-7) Lieutenant Donald Cameron (X-6) were each awarded the VC for their successful attacks on the battleship Tirpitz.

In July 1945 Smart was commanding the improved XE-1 in the Far East. The Americans at first refused to let the X-craft take part in operations, likening them to suicide-bombers or Japanese kamikaze pilots.

But they proved so successful in cutting underwater telephone cables between Singapore and Tokyo that they were eventually allowed to mount Operation Struggle, the attack on two Japanese cruisers in the Johore Strait. Smart, in XE-1, and Lieutenant Ian Fraser, in XE-3, were towed to within 40 miles of Singapore, where they entered mined waters to avoid Japanese hydrophone posts.

Smart's target was the heavy cruiser Myoko. Creeping up the strait and through an anti-submarine net while avoiding enemy patrols took some 16 hours, and Smart lost the time he needed to reach his target.

Switching to the heavy cruiser Takao, which was aground on the falling tide, he dropped his two high-explosive charges close alongside and withdrew seawards. Fraser and his diver, Leading Seaman James Magennis, who had laid XE-3's charges under Takao, were awarded the VC for destroying their target; Smart received the DSO and was made an officer of the US Legion of Merit.

John Elliott Smart was born in Northumberland on March 1 1916. He joined the RNVR in 1938, and after retiring in 1954 became a stockbroker with Pemberton Securities, a Vancouver firm. He became a director and an outstanding expert in bond trading before transferring to the firm's Victoria office in the 1980s.

A large, quiet and unfailingly courteous man, Smart was known to his Canadian friends as "the English gentleman." He was shy in mixed company and reticent about his wartime exploits.

When he took early retirement in his late fifties, he devoted his time to golf, and while his second wife was away for years pursuing her career in alternative medicine in the United States, he lived a bachelor life. His interest in books led to him organising a monthly luncheon for writers at the Sticky Wicket, a pub in Victoria; he also liked to lunch at naval officers' mess when in Vancouver.

Jack Smart is survived by a son of each of his two marriages.

Lt-Cdr Dave Tudor(Royal Canadian Navy)

Born in Edmonton in 1926, Dave joined the Royal Navy from Calgary in 1942, and signed on with the Canadian Navy in 1956. Initially a communicator by trade, Dave eventually rose to the rank of LCDR in the Canadian Navy. Dave was awarded medals for 1939/45 service in Burma, France & Germany SVals, as well as the Pacific Clasp, War Medal, and M.M.M. He qualified in submarines in August 1946, and sailed in HMS/M's Talent, Trump, Toredo, Solent, Alcide, Tantive, Sea Scout, Seneschal, and Tudor. From 1956 to 1980 while serving in the RCN/CF, Dave sailed in Canadian Submarines Grilse & Ojibwa.

".. Dave Tudor .. Submariner .. We Shall Remember Him .."

Jenny BEM

Generations of sailors who visited Hong Kong will mourn the death of Jenny. She was a much loved living legend who. for all the colony's constant change, remained the same incomparable institution for over half a century.

Much of her life was an enigma. However. the authors of her twenty-seven Certificates of Service generally agreed that she was born in a sampan in Causeway Bay in 1917. Her mother, Jenny One, according to her one surviving Certificate of Service, which was copied in 1946 from an older, much battered and largely illegible document., 'provided servicable sampans far the general use of the Royal Navy, obtained sand. and. was useful for changing money’. She brought up her two daughters to help her.

Behind her perpetual great gold-toothed grin Jenny complained; “I vcIIy chocker. All time work in sampan. N0 learn to lead or lite.” But what she lacked in education she made up more than a hundredfold with her immense and impressive experience in ship husbandry. her unfailing thoroughness and apparently inexhaustible energy. her unquestionable loyalty and integrity, her infectious enthusiasm and her innate cheerfulness.

Officially Jenny's Date of Volunteering was recorded as 1928. From then until 1997, when the colony became a Special Administrative Region of China and the Royal Navy moved out. she and her team of tireless girls. who at one time numbered nearly three dozen, unofficially served the Royal and Commonwealth Navies in Hong Kong by cleaning and painting their ships. attending their buoy jumpcrs, and, dressed in their best. waiting with grace and charm upon their guests at cocktail parties. Captains and Executive Officers would find fresh flowers in their cabins and newspapers delivered daily. And many a departing officer received a generous gift as a memento from Jenny. For all of this she steadfastly refused ever to take any payment. Instead she and her Side Party earned their keep selling soft drinks to the ships' companies and accepting any item of scrap which could be found on board.

Jenny's huge collection of photographs - too big. she said. to be put into books - she stored in a large envelope. They dated back to the mid 20th century and showed her in the ships she so faithfully served, with Buffers and Side Parties, and with grateful officers. many of whom became distinguished admirals. In two thick albums she proudly kept her letters of reference, all without exception filled with praise and affection for her. One was a commendation by the Duke of Edinburgh for her work in the Royal Yacht during her visit to Hong Kong in 1959. She has a Long Service and Good Conduct Medal presented to her in 1938 by the captain of HMS DEVONSHIRE, and a bar engraved 'HMS LEANDER 1975’.

Most treasured of all Jenny's distinctions was the British Empire Medal awarded her in the Hong Kong Civilian List of the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1980 and with which she, formally named Mrs. Ng Muk Kah, was invested by the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose.

In later years Hong Kong was no longer visited by the great fleets of battleships and cruisers which gave Jenny and her Side Party their livelihood and she found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. Yet she stayed fit and always willing to undertake any work available. To the end of the Royal Navy's presence in Hong Kong there could be seen in the shadow of the towering Prince of Wales building within the naval base, a small round figure in traditional baggy black trousers and high-collared smock, with a long pigtail and eternal smile who, regardless of time. remained it seemed for ever – just Jenny.


Jenny died peacefully in Hong Kong on Wednesday 18th February 2009. She was 92 years old.

Lt.Commander Max Shean. DSO*. US Bronze Star

Lieutenant-Commander Max Shean, who has died aged 90, was one of the small band of young men who, in the face of extraordinary peril, carried the sea war into enemy harbours; in the process they won a total of 68 awards for bravery, including four VCs; for his own exploits, Shean received a DSO and Bar.
In September 1942 Shean volunteered for special and hazardous service without knowing what this meant. After only 10 days' training, some of the volunteers dropped out; Shean thought that this took a lot of courage, while for him it seemed easier to stand at the back and hope that no one noticed his fear. When he learned soon afterwards that he was to become a diver in a secret, 51ft, four-man submarine known as an X-craft, his knees began to shake. But with his combination
of engineering skills and seamanship, it turned out to be a task for which he was well-suited. As an X-craft diver, Shean had to practise getting in and out of his submarine underwater through a small wet-and-dry chamber, shutting himself off from the rest of the crew before flooding the compartment and opening an external hatch. Shean practised cutting underwater nets in Scottish lochs, which were always cold and black. There were accidents and deaths during training, but Shean
and his fellow Australians always felt sure that they could beat the odds.
His first mission was Operation Source, the attack by a flotilla of X-craft on the German battleship Tirpitz in north Norway in September 1943. The X-craft were manned by passage crews and towed there by parent submarines, while attack crews, including Shean's, prepared themselves in the towing vessels. Disaster struck, however, when Shean's X-9, behind Syrtis, broke her tow and
the passage crew was lost. The towrope became tangled round Syrtis 's port propeller, and Shean, whose diving suit was in X-9, plunged over the side into the freezing waters. Wearing overalls weighted with steel bars in the pockets, Shean repeatedly duck- dived until he could free the tangled rope. Knowing that, if attacked from the air, Syrtis would dive and abandon him on the surface,
Shean was more frightened than he had ever been; and when he was hauled on board, the submarine's commanding officer rewarded him with a brusque "Well done!"One of the lessons of Operation Source was the potential for confusion during multiple attacks; so on Operation Guidance, in April 1944, Shean, now in command of X-24, was towed by Sceptre to Bergen, Norway, to make a solo attack on a large floating dock. Shean successfully penetrated the fjords to reach the harbour, but faulty intelligence caused him to lay X-24's explosive charges under a 7,800-ton German merchant ship, Barenfels , instead of the floating dock.
Otherwise it was a model attack, and 24 hours later, sick and suffering from headaches caused by the stale air in the boat, Shean and his crew rendezvoused at sea with Sceptre . He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his great courage, skill and determination in a most hazardous enterprise. Following D-Day, Shean's flotilla was deployed to the Far East in command of an improved craft, XE-4. When Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, and an experienced submariner, saw his first XE-craft he declared it was a "suicide craft" which had no place in the Allies' order of battle. But when orders came from Washington to cut two underwater telegraph cables off Japanese-occupied Saigon, he found that the British midget submarines were the only force capable of achieving this. The aim of Operation Sabre was to force the Japanese to use wireless communications which could be intercepted and deciphered. Shean designed new grapnels to hook the cables, which Engine Room Artificer Vernon "Ginger" Coles manufactured, and set off under tow from Queensland. En route to Indo-China, Shean nearly drowned. XE-4 was running on the surface, with the hatches closed to prevent the boat flooding, when Shean was swept away by a wave; but after "swimming the fastest strokes of my life" he grabbed the rudder and hauled himself hand-over-hand along the jumping wire and climbed on board again. Undeterred, with only underwater dead reckoning updated by occasional sightings of Cap St Jacques lighthouse, Shean expertly navigated XE-4 into
the shallow mouth of the Mekong river where, on July 31 1945, he began a submarine trawl for the cables. After ploughing the seabed for hours, XE-4 was, at 12.05, suddenly brought to a halt: it had snagged the first cable, and 13 minutes later the diver, fellow-Australian Sub-Lieutenant Ken Briggs, returned with a short length as proof that it had been cut. Resuming his trawl at 13.26, Shean found the second cable, much deeper than the first, and Sub-Lieutenant Adam Bergius made three attempts to cut it. Shean could only wait until an exhausted Bergius emerged triumphantly from the airlock brandishing a length of cable. Shortly after midnight, Shean rendezvoused with the submarine Spearhead and was towed in triumph to Subic Bay, in the Philippines. He was awarded a Bar to his DSO and the US Bronze Star for his gallantry, perseverance and outstanding skill. Coles, who was in Shean's crew in X-24 and in XE-4, was awarded a DSM and a mention in
despatches. Maxwell Shean was born on July 6 1918 in Perth, where his father was clerk to the Supreme Court, and the young Max spent his youth "messing about in tin boats on the river". He was studying Engineering at the University of Western Australia when he heard news of Dunkirk. Although strongly advised to finish
his studies, he was determined to join the Royal Australian Naval Volunteer Reserve. The Royal Navy needed skilled anti-submarine warfare officers for the Battle of the Atlantic, and eventually one fifth of all ASWOs were trained at HMAS Rushcutter in Sydney, where Shean was sent in late 1940. By the summer of 1941 he was in his first ship, the corvette Bluebell , which he described as "like your first girlfriend, she goes into your heart. I served 14 months in Bluebell , she kept me afloat and gave me three meals a day, made me seasick and she sank a U-boat." Bluebell was part of the 37th Escort Group escorting convoys between Britain and Gibraltar, and Shean took part in some of the bitterest fighting of the Battle of the Atlantic. His skill as an ASWO and proficiency in using his ASDIC (sonar) earned him the nickname "King Ping". At the end of 1941 Bluebell took part in the desperate defence of convoy OG77, which was attacked by a wolf pack; but five U-boats were sunk. On the night of December 11/12 Shean heard the high-pitched whine of torpedoes three times through his headset and warned his captain to turn Bluebell , and at midnight he dropped two patterns of depth charges. Shean's post war research in British and German archives convinced him that he had sunk U-208.
While training in X-craft on the Isle of Bute, Shean travelled to Aberfeldy, Perthshire, to seek his Scottish ancestors. There he was warned that the village shop's pretty assistant was "spoken for". Nevertheless, romance blossomed, and despite wartime security Shean even smuggled her into the builder's yard, where she broke a bottle of Australian champagne on the bows of Shean's boat, XE-4,
and gave it its unofficial name, Exciter . After the war Shean finished his degree and worked for the City of Perth Electricity and Gas Department, and the State Electricity Commission until his retirement in 1978. In 1979 he celebrated the 150th anniversary of the settlement of Western Australia by winning the open division of the Parmelia Yacht Race from Plymouth to Fremantle. His yacht, Bluebell , is today
moored at Fremantle Sailing Club. In May 2005 Shean and his wife joined the Department of Veterans' Affairs VE-Day mission to Europe. Shean's logical approach to problems and his interest in engineering shine through his modest wartime biography, Corvette and Submarine (1992). Once one of his daughter's boyfriends remarked that he ran his household like a battleship, which Shean took
as a great compliment. Max Shean, who died on June 15, married Mary Golding in 1944. She survives him with their two daughters.
Telegraph on line 19-06-09