Taken From The Daily Telegraph

 

Captain Peter Samborne

 

Captain Peter Samborne, who has died aged 78, commanded Britain's first nuclear-powered submarine Dreadnought in the early 1960s.

Even Admiral Hyman Rickover of the US Navy - who was never slow to criticise the Royal Navy's progress in the rudest fashion - was impressed by the technical and intellectual competence of Samborne when he was selected to train in American nuclear-powered submarines.

 

Samborne first attended No 1 Nuclear Course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, then spent nine months in the USS Skipjack, learning about the S5W power plant which was being installed in Dreadnought. Exceptionally for a seaman officer in the RN, Samborne qualified as engineer officer of the watch and was later regarded as one of the best nuclear engineers of his generation.

 

The Navy recognised the significance of a new generation of submarines not just by giving the first boat the name of a revolutionary ship (the 1905 battleship Dreadnought), but also by asking the Queen to launch her on Trafalgar Day, 1961.

 

All previous submarines had been taken on sea trials by the shipbuilder, but only Samborne and his crew were qualified to take the new Dreadnought to sea. Since Vickers had responsibility for the trials, they overcame this contractual problem by paying Samborne £1 for his services; he started a new tradition by hanging the framed pound note in the wardroom.

 

There were many firsts during Samborne's command. In 1962 he got the surfaced Dreadnought "on the step", that is, rising through the water, like a planing speedboat; and in 1964 she crossed the Atlantic underwater at a speed  in excess of 24 knots. That year, after more than three years in Dreadnought, he was appointed OBE.

 

Barnaby Frederick Palmer Samborne, known as Peter, was born on September 3 1924 at Timbury House, Somerset, and went to St Christopher's School, Bath, before joining Dartmouth aged 13.5. His first ship was the Town class light cruiser Liverpool. In 1942, while escorting the desperately needed Convoy WS19 to Malta, Liverpool was hit in the engine room and disabled

 

She could be towed only at slow speed by the destroyer Antelope, but she helped save the convoy because the Italian air force concentrated their subsequent attacks upon the crippled cruiser, leaving the convoy to escape eastwards in the darkness. During the attack, Midshipman Samborne controlled Liverpool's 4”  anti-aircraft guns from the transmitting station; and the ship shot down at least seven aircraft. Samborne was mentioned in dispatches for his bravery and resolution in keeping the high-angle guns firing accurately while under continuous attack and as the ship listed heavily.

 

Later he served briefly in the battleship Malaya in Force H in the Mediterranean, and in the Hunt class destroyer Lamerton during the North African campaign and the landings on Sicily. Samborne joined the "trade", as the submarine service is sometimes known, in January 1944 and served as navigating officer and then first lieutenant of Tuna.

 

His next submarine was the Amphion, the first of a new class designed for service in the British Pacific Fleet. He joined her while she was building at Barrow, gaining experience which would later stand him in good stead. Samborne was then appointed to Reserve Submarine Group, Portsmouth, the submarine school at Gosport, and as officer commanding Rothesay Attack Teacher; but for two decades he served almost continually at sea.

 

He passed the submarine commanding officers' qualifying course, the "perisher", and commanded the submarines Sturdy, Tabard and Trenchant until promoted Commander. After the war, the Navy had pioneered the use of submarines for intelligence gathering; each operation required the Prime Minister's personal approval, and in 1955 Samborne was entrusted to take Tabard to the Barents Sea.

 

After Dreadnought, he was given a series of staff appointments ashore, including Deputy Chief of Staff of the Nato command on Malta from 1967 to 1970. But Samborne was unhappy in staff posts ashore. He retired as a captain, while many of the officers who had served under him in Dreadnought were to become admirals. These included Sir John Fieldhouse, who succeeded him in Dreadnought's command and later was C-in-C, Fleet, during the Falklands War. After retiring from the Navy, Samborne marketed periscopes for the instrument makers Barr and Stroud.

 

Samborne, who died on September 28, married Margaret Brewster in 1945. She died in 1988, and he is survived by their second son, who commanded the nuclear-powered submarine Swiftsure in 1987-89, and by their daughter; their elder son died in 2000

 

 

Taken From the Naval Review March 1992 Issue.

Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fieldhouse, GCB, GBE (12-02-1928 - 17 -02-1992)

 

The outline of John Fieldhouse's career is well known to many of the Dreadnought Association Members but bears some repetition. He joined as a 13-year-old cadet in 1941, specialised in submarines and made most of his earlier career in that specialisation. He was quickly into nuclear-powered command and his outstanding success there laid the foundation for subsequent appointments on his way to the top. Of these the most significant perhaps were as Director of Naval Warfare, immediately followed by Flag Officer, Second Flotilla and Flag Officer Submarines, in the middle and late 1970s. Further service in Whitehall as Controller was followed by his appointment as Commander-in-Chief, Fleet, in 1981.

 

It was here that the great responsibility of the conduct of the South Atlantic campaign fell upon him in 1982: a test and an opportunity willingly accepted, the result superbly achieved. The mixture of well-practised procedures and hectic improvisation that were characteristic of the campaign were, in the light of history, nothing new for the Royal Navy.

 

John Fieldhouse emerged as one of their principal exponents and most successful exploiters.

 

His subsequent appointment as First Sea Lord was clearly marked, and he brought to the post not only experience but influence. He had to contend with, if not exactly a backlash, at least suspicion that the navy was seeking a disproportionate return from its service in the South Atlantic. Those who had serviced the Nott Review of 1981, and had been proved so dramatically wrong, were in many cases still in place; and much of his time in office was spent in combatting the 'sea blindness' (his phrase) that persisted.

 

His move to the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff, though out of Buggins' sequence, was widely predicted in view of the close relationship of trust between him and the Prime Minister that had subsisted since the Falkland; conflict. When that appointment came to an end

 

in 1988, it was widely predicted that he would become the Chairman of NATO's Military Committee, an appointment of great international importance and one for which, with his experience, he was exceptionally well fitted. Perhaps we shall never be certain whether he would have got the job, for which there were other contenders; for just before the final decision was to be made, he suffered a ruptured aorta. By a near-miraculous run of circumstance his life was preserved then, but clearly his health would not allow a further arduous appointment.

 

His outstanding services to the Navy and the Nation were recognised by a life peerage in 1990; his sponsors in the Lords were Admiral of the Fleet Lord Lewin and Field Marshal Lord Bramall.

 

I was not sure who could do justice to John in a personal appreciation, but since I knew him almost since his entry to Dartmouth and worked near him often enough since, and given the short time before our closing date for the April issue, I felt I should take on the task myself even though there must be others much better qualified than I.

 

One's recollections of some people vary a great deal: their development seems relatively rapid, or their inconsistencies colour one's memory. But my recollections of John vary very little, from the ages of 14 or 15 to 63. There was always that quiet manner, economy of word and apparent effort, slightly quizzical glance. It was with mild surprise that one discovered (as we all did at RNC Eaton Hall) that Actually Fieldhouse was Quite Keen. He was his own man even then, I think; there was nothing manufactured about him.

 

He was a great simplifier. I recall a car journey to Corsham, where the Directors of the Naval Staff were to brainstorm for a day or two, when he explained the principles and application of Fast Fourier Transforms in a way that a non-submariner, non-TASman could readily understand. His whole approach was like that. He took trouble to understand the complexities all right, but fought his way through them to the simplicities beyond. Few could fail to enjoy his gentle, unsardonic humour.

 

There was a certain dinner at Dean House, Lee-on-the-Solent, which in earlier days had been the local Wrennery; and John took some delight in pointing out the kitchen window that had been the means of communication between him and Midge — that splendid, fiercely loyal consort who supported him through thick and thin thereafter.

 

Finally, he had extraordinarily good judgment. Consistently accurate judgment is a rare quality even in top people, and those who do not have it ought to look on in awe. John knew much better than most what would run and what would not. There is a story that in the first briefing at Northwood in early April 1982, there was a terse final exchange. Prime Minister: 'Can you win?' C-in-C: 'If you give me all the support I ask for, Yes.' It was enough: just enough, and I am sure he knew how close it was going to be.

 

He was a man of his time and for his time, and the future will be poorer without him.

richard hill