43 Facts About Arthur Hezlet

Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur Richard Hezlet, nicknamed Baldy Hezlet, was a decorated Royal Navy submariner.

Arthur Hezlet was a recipient of the Order of the British Empire, the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, the Distinguished Service Order and Bar, the Distinguished Service Cross, and the Legion of Merit.

Arthur Hezlet's father had a distinguished career in the British Army including appointments as director of artillery at the War Office and in India.

Arthur Hezlet joined the Royal Navy in January 1928, aged 13.

Arthur Hezlet attended the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and went to sea in 1932, serving as a midshipman on the battleships HMS Royal Oak and HMS Resolution.

Arthur Hezlet was promoted to Lieutenant on 1 April 1936, achieving the highest mark in his Lieutenant's examinations, winning the Ronald Megaw Memorial Prize.

Arthur Hezlet served as First Lieutenant on the submarine HMS Trident.

Arthur Hezlet later recalled having carried out about fifteen simulated attacks in elderly submarines in the Clyde on various kinds of mainly unsuitable target, following which it was declared he had passed.

Arthur Hezlet was sent on two patrols as relief for commanders who needed rest.

Arthur Hezlet had to get the submarine away from the end of the "tracks" made by the torpedoes moving through the water, because they would provide a visible indication to observers on the surface, and in the air, of the location of the submarine which had fired them.

Arthur Hezlet was so preoccupied with these two tasks that he did not himself hear the torpedoes hit but was assured by the general jubilation in the control room that they had.

An attack on Unique by an Italian flying boat later that day damaged one of her fuel tanks, and so Arthur Hezlet returned early from patrol.

In November 1941 Arthur Hezlet was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for the sinking of the Esperia.

Arthur Hezlet fired one torpedo at the Italian troopship Vulcania, but it was a long-range shot and missed.

In late March 1942 Arthur Hezlet was given command of HMS Trident, the boat in which he had been First Lieutenant at the beginning of the war, with Ian McGeoch as his first lieutenant.

Arthur Hezlet later recalled that his instructions were not to fire at anything but Tirpitz, which had arrived at Trondheim on 13 March 1942, and that he consequently had a frustrating time watching hundreds of thousands of tonnes of unescorted shipping plying the coastal waters.

Arthur Hezlet was one of two submarines assigned to this duty, the other being HMS Seawolf.

Arthur Hezlet became a special training officer on the banks of the River Clyde in September 1942, at the informally named "HMS Varbel", training the crews of midget submarines to attack the German battleship Tirpitz.

Arthur Hezlet invented the "Hezlet Rail", a bar and strap to secure the watchkeeper to the X-craft's casing in bad weather.

In May 1943, Arthur Hezlet was appointed as the Lieutenant in Command of HMS Thrasher.

Arthur Hezlet was mentioned in dispatches for his role in the operation.

In October 1943, before leaving Thrasher at Holy Loch, Arthur Hezlet was promoted to Lieutenant Commander six months early with eighteen months' seniority, as from 1 October 1942.

On 15 October 1943 Arthur Hezlet took over as Lieutenant Commander in Command of the submarine HMS Trenchant at Chatham.

Arthur Hezlet's mission was partly to participate in Operation Boomerang, the USAAF's B-29 raid on oil fields and refineries at Palembang, by standing off the coast and assist in searching for and rescuing aircrew downed over the sea.

Arthur Hezlet stopped to pick up survivors who were being discouraged by one of their number, an officer, from doing so.

Arthur Hezlet manoeuvred Trenchant to cut the officer off from the rest of the group and eventually Trenchant managed to coax 14 Japanese to accept rescue; the others had to be left to their fate.

Arthur Hezlet undertook long-range patrols in the Indian and Pacific oceans, earning him his first Distinguished Service Order.

Arthur Hezlet sank the long-range German U-boat U-859, on 23 September 1944, near the Sunda Strait, whose position had been identified through 'Ultra' signals decrypts.

On 8 June 1945, Arthur Hezlet took Trenchant into shallow mined water in the Banka Strait off Sumatra, to intercept Japanese heavy cruiser Ashigara.

Arthur Hezlet was ordered to Subic Bay in the Philippines, where he was awarded the US Legion of Merit by US Admiral James Fife, Jr.

Arthur Hezlet commanded the destroyer HMS Scorpion, and then served in the Admiralty, and as Chief Staff Officer to the Flag Officer Submarines, before taking command of the destroyer HMS Battleaxe and becoming Captain D of the 6th Destroyer Flotilla in 1955.

In 1956, Arthur Hezlet was appointed as Director of the Naval Staff College at Greenwich.

Arthur Hezlet was in office later that year, when the preferred option for the UK's nuclear deterrent moved from the air-launched Skybolt missile to the Polaris missile launched by ballistic missile submarines.

Arthur Hezlet was promoted to vice-admiral and appointed KBE before his retirement in 1964.

Arthur Hezlet returned to his family home, Bovagh House, at Aghadowey, County Londonderry.

Arthur Hezlet was Northern Ireland president of the Royal British Legion for 25 years.

Arthur Hezlet served with the RNLI, a member of the general synod of the Church of Ireland, and was an original council member of the University of Ulster.

Arthur Hezlet was a keen yachtsman, and his yacht Agivey was a familiar sight on the coasts of Ireland and Scotland.

Arthur Hezlet was appointed High Sheriff of County Londonderry for 1968.

Arthur Hezlet was survived by his wife, Annie Joan Patricia Clark, and their two daughters.

Arthur Hezlet wrote a history of the Ulster Special Constabulary, the "B Specials", in 1972.

Arthur Hezlet reviewed the use of electricity and electronics in naval warfare in The Electron and Sea Power.

Arthur Hezlet published a memoir, HMS Trenchant at War: from Chatham to the Banka Strait, in 2001, and his last book, the authoritative History of British and Allied Submarine Operations, listed every patrol taken by an Allied submarine in the Second World War.