Rupert Lonsdale

Rupert Philip Lonsdale (5 May 1905-25 April 1999) was a British submarine commander, prisoner of war and Anglican clergyman. He was forced to surrender his ship in World War II, and was honourably acquitted at the inevitable court-martial after spending five years as a prisoner of war. After the war he took holy orders serving in several Anglican parishes and in 1952 volunteered to go as a District Chaplain to Kenya to help find a peaceful solution to the Mau Mau Uprising.

Early life

Lonsdale was born at Dublin and educated at St. Cyprian's School, Eastbourne and RNC Osborne. He began in the submarine branch of the service in 1927 and within four years was First Lieutenant of "XI", a large experimental submersible. With four 5.2-inch guns and displacing 2,780 tons this was by far the biggest craft before the advent of nuclear vessels.

In 1934 he passed the demanding submarine command qualifying course, and his first command was HMS "H44", a legacy of World War I, of 440 tons, with four torpedo tubes and a machine-gun. Lonsdale was promoted Lieutenant-Commander in May 1936 and in 1937 he took over the newer HMS "Swordfish" (61S) for a year. His next command on 1 November 1938 was HMS "Seal", which he commissioned in May 1939.

HMS Seal

After missions in the China Sea, at Aden, on the North Atlantic and North Sea Patrol, the submarine’s last mission was to cross the Skagerrak and lay a minefield in the Kattegat. Lonsdale failed to persuade Admiral Horton, a legendary submariner himself, to reconsider his orders because this was an almost impossible task for a submarine as large as "Seal". The ship sailed on 29 April and was held in check by German trawlers in the area. She managed to lay her mines, but exploded a German mine which damaged her stern, filling her hull. Lonsdale decided not to abandon ship, but to try and make for the nearby Swedish coast. However the damaged submarine threatened never to surface and as a devout Christian, Lonsdale led his ship's company in the Lord's Prayer. He managed to reach the surface but enemy aircraft summoned patrol craft and kept the boat under attack. The crew were exhausted by fumes and there was no realistic alternative but to surrender. An attempt to scuttle the boat failed but the secret Asdic equipment was successfully destroyed.

Prisoner of War

Early on 5 May 1940, his 35th birthday, Lonsdale swam to a seaplane and into captivity. He had done all that could be done but he never forgave himself. Later it was revealed that Horton had sent two signal in response to his surfacing signal giving his intention to make for Sweden - "Understood and agreed with. Best of luck. Well done", followed by "Safety of personnel should be your first consideration after destruction of Asdics". Unfortunately these did not get through as they would have helped him justify his actions to himself. He was mentioned in despatches four days later for his previous patrol work. [ "Pyrrhus", which he brought up from Glanton before joining an operational flotilla at Portsmouth in January 1946. However he had to face the Court-Martial for the loss of his ship during the war and "his modesty was such that he had not begun to realise that there was even the slightest possibility of his being considered not as a coward but as a hero" Lonsdale was tried at Portsmouth, on 10 April 1946, and it took the court just over half an hour to acquit him with an honourable discharge.

Kenya

Lonsdale went to Ridley Hall in Cambridge in 1946 to prepare for his ordination and became a priest in 1949. His first curacy was with a mission church at Rowner, near HMS Dolphin shore-establishment, the submarine base at Gosport, followed by becoming vicar of Morden-with-Almer in Dorset in 1951. In 1953 he started a five year tour in the White Highlands of Kenya as a District Chaplain. He volunteered for this mission because he thought that his five years as a prisoner of war should help him to befriend the Mau Mau rebels, and at one point he offered to live in the bush as a hostage, to demonstrate Britain's benevolent intentions.

England

In 1958 he returned to England to be Vicar of Bentworth-with-Shaldon in Hampshire but then in 1960 returned out of affection to Kenya for another tour of duty. He became a Canon Emeritus, and his last full-time incumbency was from 1965 to 1970 as Vicar of Thornham-with-Titchwell on the north Norfolk coast. Lonsdale retired to Hampshire, but held several part-time chaplaincies for the Anglican Church's European diocese based on Gibraltar. This led to a three-year stay in Tenerife (1970-73) before he returned to England for some time in the clergy hospice at College of St Mark at Audley End. Lonsdale died at Bournemouth, Dorset

Personal life

Lonsdale’s personal life was riven with tragedy. His first wife Christina Lyall whom he married in 1935 died in 1937 as did their son. After the war he married Kathleen Deal, whom he took out to Kenya, but she died in 1961. Next he married Ursula Sansum, a former WRNS officer, who also supported him in Kenya but she died in 1986. Finally he married Ethne Irwin in Malta in 1989. She survived him as did his son John Lonsdale, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who has specialised in East African history.

In 1960 C.E.T. Warren and James Benson asked Rupert Lonsdale for his help with their book about the loss of "Seal", "Will Not We Fear" (1961). He eventually agreed, provided that he was allowed to write a foreword making it clear that he would never have suggested that the book be written, that he was a reluctant contributor, and then only in the trust that it might help some readers to find faith in God. Afterwards he said "Now that the tale is written I recoil all the more from any publicity, but the one reason for my co-operation remains." The book includes a simple but eloquent tribute from him to his ship's company and the authors prefaced his foreword with the first seven verses of Psalm XLVI from which they drew their title. As Sainsbury wrote,

References

* A. B. Sainsbury The Independent, (London), Obituary of Rupert Lonsdale May 13, 1999
* C.E.T.Warren and James Benson "We will not fear" George G Harrap & Co, 1961
* Melanie Wiggins "Fatal Ascent: HMS Seal 1940" Spellmount 2008, ISBN 1-86227-316-9

External links

* [http://www.cavillconnections.co.uk/courtmnews11.htm Trial report]