Death of John Winton, British Naval
Writer
John Winton, the pen name of engineer Lieutenant Commander
John Pratt RN, died aged 69 on 3 May 2001. He was part of a
group—and he was probably the most prolific of all of them,
of four famous UK naval writers of the `1900’s - Taffrail,
an RN captain; Bartemeus, Paymaster Captain Ricci RN and Captain
S.Roskill RN. All wrote from the twenties to the fifties covering
many aspects of the navy, both in non-fiction and fiction.
I met Captain Ricci in Alexandria in 1942. He was a personal
friend of Admiral Cunningham. Winton left the navy after the
Korean War in which he served. He continued his naval scribbling
making a great success of his new career. He wrote on every
conceivable naval subject completing 40 books. His first was
written after some years in the navy. Apparently he didn’t
get proper approval for the book and he earned the displeasure
of Their Lordships of the Navy Board despite the fact it was
bestseller. It was called “We Joined the Navy (59)”
and was a spoof on the navy about his life as a cadet at Dartmouth
Naval College--my alma mater-- and in the training ships.
A few of his books were “We saw the sea (60),” “Down
the hatch (61)” another humorous one, “The Good Ship
Venus (84)” also comedic, foretelling what would happen
when Wrens started going to sea! “The War at Sea “,
was a very successful anthology of naval war stories written
by the men who took part in them. Also “Air Power at Sea,”
“Fighting Temeraire,” “VCs won at Sea.”
and “ Ultra at Sea.” etc etc.
He was a columnist in the British Naval Review for some years
and wrote obituaries of famous naval personalities in The Daily
Telegraph for 14 years. He has a connection with Canada as he
wrote a book about the Battle of the Atlantic and the convoy
system. He wrote that the part played by the Canadian Navy in
it has been vastly underrated. It must be remembered that the
RCN was the fourth largest navy in the world at the end of the
war. He was interested in the dashing dangerous Motor Torpedo
Boat war in the English Channel and the Mediterranean.
It is a fact unknown in Canada that this country produced some
of the greatest MTB aces of this war equalling the achievements
of their WW1 hero Flight Lieutenant Billy Bishop VC. They were
John Douglas Maitland, DSC and bar, Mid (Mention in despatches),
Criox de Guerre with palm; Cornelius Burke, DSC and 2 bars,
Mid; Thomas Ellis Ladner, DSC and bar, 5 mids; James Ralph Hillborn
Kirkpatrick, DSC, Mid: Charles Anthony Francis Law, DSC, Mid;
Charles Arthur Burk, DSC and two bars, 2 Mids; Thomas George
Fuller, DSC and 2 bars, Mid.
The officer that interested him the most was Tom Fuller. He
was the oldest of the group and was called Papa. He had thirteen
boats sunk under him. He was absolutely fearless to the point
of foolhardyness but, by sheer luck, avoided death. He had a
sense of humour but demanded the best from his crew. He was
taken prisoner in Leros by the invading German army in the disastrous
Dodecanese campaign but in the confusion stole the Italian Admiral’s
barge and escaped to Turkey, twenty miles away. When faced by
three German E-boats escorting a small coaster off an Adriatic
island at night he fired a low star shell that fell on the enemy
coaster. It exploded and sank one E-boat and the other two shoved
off. My connection with him was, when he came back to Canada,
he was the president of a court martial of an able seaman who
went after the officer of watch with an axe in harbour. I was
the Associate Judge Advocate in this case.
Winton wrote three biographies, one on Sir Walter Raleigh,
one on Earl Jellicoe of WW1 fame and his last book on Admiral
Cunningham was published just before he died. His book Cunningham,
was titled “Cunningham, the Greatest Admiral since Nelson.”
You can imagine how that made me feel. But what really gave
me a thrill was that my book was listed in its bibliography.
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