Veteran of Jutland and the Bismarck hunt dies

[Andy H]

From the Daily Telegraph

Captain Henry St John Fancourt
(Filed: 13/01/2004)

Captain Henry St John Fancourt, who has died aged 103, was a midshipman in the Battle of Jutland; he was later responsible for launching the hunt for the Bismarck, having played a vital part in reviving the Fleet Air Arm between the wars.

In October 1941 Fancourt was commanding Sparrowhawk, the Royal Naval Air Station at Hatston, Orkney, when the Admiralty feared the break out into the Atlantic of the German battleship Bismarck. The weather for the previous three days had been too bad for RAF reconnaissance, when, on May 22, Fancourt, on his own initiative, prepared a Maryland from 771 Naval Air Squadron to survey the Norwegian fjords.

Flying in the most difficult conditions, he penetrated the low clouds, found Bismarck had sailed, and set the hunt in motion. Fancourt, again acting on his own, had also sent 828 Squadron, consisting of Albacore torpedo bombers, to Sumburgh, ready for a strike on Bismarck, but she did not come within range. His resourcefulness was recognised by a mention in dispatches.

In November 1942 Fancourt commanded the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, which consisted of two destroyers, Broke and Malcolm, in an assault on the harbour of Algiers. Operation Terminal, as it was called, was a late addition to Operation Torch, the allied landings in North Africa.

Flying the American flag as a ruse de guerre, Fancourt hoped to delay any French response until he had landed some 700 American rangers. In the darkness of November 8 the ships failed to find the entrance and came under heavy fire; Malcolm was badly hit and withdrew, but Fancourt, in the Broke, commanded by Lieutenant-Commander Frank Layard RCN, pressed on and at the fourth attempt broke the boom across the entrance.

Though they had practised the operation in the cruiser Belfast, the rangers, from the mid-West, showed a marked reluctance to leave the shelter of Broke, and those who did were soon rounded up. Broke was forced by heavy, close-range fire to withdraw and foundered the next day trying to make Gibraltar.

Though defeated, and despite many casualties amongst the British seamen and American troops, the survivors, rescued by the destroyer Zetland, marched proudly ashore, headed by Fancourt. He and Layard were awarded the DSO, for their "bravery and skill in the hazardous operations in which Allied forces were landed in North Africa".

Henry Lockhart St John Fancourt was born on April 1 1900, son of General St John Fancourt. He entered the Royal Naval College, Osborne, in January 1913, as war fever grew, and after training was sent to the battlecruiser Princess Royal.

In Princess Royal, Fancourt was one of the last survivors of the controversial Battle of Jutland on May 31 1916 between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet. Fancourt's view of the battle through the gunsights of the ship's 13.5-inch "Y" turret was rather limited, and when he emerged during a lull in the battle he and others cheered when they saw men clinging to the bows and stern of a wreck: only later did he learn that the men were British, and the ship was the battlecruiser Invincible.

"We were firing as fast as we could (about 2-3 shots per minute) at ranges of 8 to 10 miles and tearing along at 28 knots," he recalled. "And then we felt a shake and learned that our "X" turret amidships had been hit.

"No-one really doubted the outcome of the battle. . . But the Germans were good and their gunnery was hot; there just weren't enough of them. But what they did, they did very well; they fought bravely and lost considerably fewer men than we did."

Eighteen months after Jutland, Fancourt was promoted Sub-Lieutenant and assigned to escort and patrol duties based at Queenstown, Ireland, before joining the battleship Royal Oak at Scapa Flow. To the young officer, it resembled "miles and miles of nothing at all", but, in 1919, he witnessed there the scuttling of the interned German fleet, 51 ships totalling some half a million tons.

After the First World War the Admiralty sent young officers to Cambridge in order to complete their education, and Fancourt went to Gonville and Caius.

When the Admiralty's interest in naval aviation was revived, Fancourt joined No 1 Naval Pilots' Course in 1924, when he was given the dual rank of Flying Officer RAF and Lieutenant RN. Amongst several other types of aircraft he enjoyed several years flying the Fairey III D floatplane.

He joined the training carrier Argus and took part in operations during the Chinese civil war and riots in Shanghai in 1927, and, after moving to the carrier Courageous in 1929, flew reconnaissance for a naval landing party in Palestine.

During the 1920s the Royal Navy had abandoned a fore-and-aft arrester system which relied upon slow landings and wire palisades to prevent aircraft from slipping over the side. In June 1931 Fancourt was the first to try the athwartships arrester wire on Courageous, which became standard in the navies of the world.

Promoted Lieutenant-Commander in 1928, Fancourt commanded 822 Naval Air Squadron, and from 1933 played a significant part in recruiting and training officers for the Fleet Air Arm, serving in the personnel department of the Admiralty, selecting officers for flying training. While Officer in Charge of Flying Training at the shore establishment Daedalus, he was badly injured when German dive-bombers destroyed the control tower at Lee-on-the-Solent in January 1941.

In 1942, when Churchill had persuaded Roosevelt to allow the USS Wasp to ferry RAF Spitfires to Malta, Fancourt flew onboard the Wasp in a Gloster Sea Gladiator, becoming the first British officer to land on an American ship. The American equipment was heavier than the British, and Fancourt thought he might have broken the tailplane but, disdaining to appear concerned in front of his allies, gave his aircraft only a cursory check before he took off. In 1943, after returning to Argus in command, Fancourt flew off in a Swordfish and landed with his son, Michael, then a 16-year-old Air Training Corps cadet, probably the first deck landing by a father and son.

After Argus, which sailed with Mediterranean convoys, Fancourt moved to the escort carrier Unicorn, also used for training, in the British Eastern and British Pacific Fleets from 1943 until 1945. Despite having held some key senior staff appointments, events conspired to deny him the necessary sea time for promotion to flag rank.

Fancourt was embittered that after 35 years service he was "bunged out" of the service at one month's notice in 1951. He had flown a score of different types of aircraft, from World War I vintage biplanes to modern twin-engine aircraft, and had 1,317 hours recorded in his log.

After the Navy he worked for Sir Matthew Slattery, a colleague from No 1 Naval Pilots Course, in Short Brothers and Harland in Belfast, retiring again in 1965 to spend more time fly-fishing.

Fancourt, who died on Thursday, married Lillian Marion Osborne (née Parkin) in 1921, whom he divorced in 1960, and then Pauline Bettina Mosley (née Kimble), who died in 2001. He is survived by his son Michael, and two daughters. Another son, who predeceased him, was Captain RNR and commanded London Division RNR.