Vice Admiral Sir William Crawford KCB the first FOST(Flag Officer Sea Training) World Naval Ships Forums Archive

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Vice Admiral Sir William Crawford KCB the first FOST(Flag Officer Sea Training) World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Vice Admiral Sir William Crawford KCB the first FOST(Flag Officer Sea Training)

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[B]Vice-Admiral Sir William Crawford KCB[/B] The Telegraph 12:05AM BST 20 Jun 2003 Vice-Admiral Sir William Crawford, who died on Monday aged 95, played a major role in the post-war training of naval officers after earlier being gunnery officer of the battleship Rodney in the hunt for the Bismarck. In 1958 Crawford was chosen to set up a new organisation known as the Flag Officer Sea Training, responsible for "working up" all ships before they joined the fleet. Those arriving at Portland would be made to practise emergencies and put through every kind of manoeuvre. At the end of several weeks they would be inspected during intensive action, which included simulated battle damage. In two years Crawford inspected more than 50 ships and extended the training programme to include foreign navies, laying the foundation for the organisation which today is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence. Although his reports were frank, Crawford established himself as the commanding officer's friend, recognising that the most important factor in the Navy was the quality of its people. He conducted all inspections himself, a gruelling job, since he frequently had to transfer between ships by jackstay, often in heavy weather and the small hours, while suffering from a slipped disc. As Captain of the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, from 1954 to 1956, Crawford introduced 18-year-old entry and produced a long report on the future of officer training, which was so sensitive that he was told to write it in longhand. He oversaw the college's 50th anniversary celebrations, witnessing one occasion when the town's mace-bearer, preceding Prince Philip with the silver oar that was his symbol of office, slipped; the official fell over a photographer and then kicked his camera into the river. William Godfrey Crawford was born on September 14 1907 into a family which had been among the first white settlers in New Zealand. His grandfather, as master of the merchant ship Minden, had transported convicts to the Swan River in the 1850s, a factor in Crawford's decision many years later to refuse the Governorship of Western Australia. His father returned home after inheriting property in Dorset, and young Bill had a first experience of the Royal Navy when he saw survivors from the Formidable after she had been shipwrecked off Lyme in 1915. At Dartmouth, where seamanship and Callender's Sea Kings of Britain replaced classics and history, Crawford won his colours for rugby and sailing, became Chief Cadet Captain and was awarded the King's Dirk. Between the wars Crawford specialised in gunnery and showed a flair for diplomacy. In 1934, he undertook a week-long expedition from Dubrovnik to Belgrade when he was officer of the guard at the funeral of the assassinated King Alexander; the rations for his 20 Royal Marines and 100 seamen from the battleship Queen Elizabeth consisted entirely of Cornish pasties. Three years later, when the cruiser Delhi visited Varna in Bulgaria, he was invited to dine with King Boris who, after dinner, changed into engine driver's uniform to drive his guests back to their ship in his own locomotive. Crawford's uncle Freddy Dalrymple-Hamilton was captain of Rodney when Admiral Sir Jack Tovey's force brought the German battleship Bismarck to bay on May 27 1941. Although visibility was bad Crawford, as gunnery officer, correctly estimated the range at 27,000 yards and hit Bismarck with Rodney's third salvo. On closing range to 4,000 yards, he recalled, two of Bismarck's last rounds seemed destined to go down both barrels of his binoculars until they splashed short. He was awarded the DSC for his part in the operation. At the end of the war he was charged with keeping law and order in Hong Kong with patrols of sailors mounted on ponies. In the early 1960s Crawford was Commander, British Naval Staff Washington, when Lord Harlech, an old friend of President Kennedy, was the British ambassador. He once had to intervene when Harlech suggested calling the President to solve some minor problem, by pointing out that the Admiralty had not been informed. Later Crawford was drinking whisky with Admiral George Anderson, the American Chief of Naval Operations, when the President rang to order the blockade of Cuba; the crisis did not prevent Anderson from coming to a Trafalgar night dinner as Crawford's guest the next night. Crawford was appointed CB in 1958 and KCB in 1963, when he retired from the Navy. He worked for the British Travel Association for two years, but kept up his interest in the Royal Cruising Club for a total of 60 years. In 1980 he began a series of trans-Atlantic crossings under sail, in the course of which friends would give him lunch in the Canaries, on Bermuda and in the West Indies. The return crossing became known as the "222" cruise, because that was his and his two fellow crew members' combined age. His last cross-Channel sail was to attend an RCC meet on Guernsey, when he was more than 90 years old. Bill Crawford married Mary Williams in 1939, who predeceased him; he is survived by three sons and a daughter. [url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1433498/Vice-Admiral-Sir-William-Crawford.html[/url] Little h

An interesting life Harry covering two world wars and beyond. jainso31

A couple of minor amendments - Admiral Crawford was KBE (in New Year Honours List 1961) not KCB, and he worked for the British Tourist Authority from 1965 to 1972, eight years, not 2 as stated. Capt Dalrymple-Hamilton (Captain of HMS Rodney during the Bismarck operation) was actually my mother's uncle, not my father's... James

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