Cdr. HENRY OWEN L’ESTRANGE  D.S.C. R.D. R.N.R.

by Janet L’Estrange

Henry Owen L’Estrange was born at Lisnalurg Sligo, in 1912.  He was the second son of Henry George L’Estrange, and his wife Evelyn,  who was the second eldest daughter of Owen Wynne of Hazelwood, Sligo, and the grandson of Christopher Carleton L’Estrange of Kevinsfort, Sligo, and Market Hill, Co.Fermanagh.

He was educated at home until he went to CastlePark, a preparatory school in Dalkey, Co.Dublin, from 1922 to 1925.  Thereafter he joined his elder brother Christopher Carleton L’Estrange in the Merchant Service  training ship H.M.S. Conway near Liverpool from 1926 to 1929.  From May 1929 until 1932 he was an indentured apprentice with Alfred Holt of Liverpool, with whom he ‘served his time’ in the Blue Funnel Line, trading to  the Far East, Middle East, and South America.  On completion of his apprenticeship he remained with Holts as 4^th Mate until 1934. It was the time of the great depression and shipping like all other industry was reducing manpower and wages.  He was offered 25p a week all found - he decided to resign and seek his fortune elsewhere.  He found himself employment with the War Department Fleet in Watchet, in Somerset, where he spent a happy year as temporary mate in a small target towing vessel at a weekly wage of £2.00.  This, was fortunate for his widow, as it meant that with that extra year’s service with the Ministry of Defence, she and their children received a larger pension than if he had to calculate his service from 1935 when he joined the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service (R.F.A.) as 3^rd Mate.

He remained with the R.F.A. until 1940 when he was called up for service with the Royal Navy, he had joined the R.N.R. in 1938   and  was gazetted as an R.N.R Sub Lieutenant at that time.  On enlistment into the R.N. he was promoted to Lieutenant R.N.R.

In July 1940 he was given his first command,  an armed North Sea trawler ‘taken up from trade’ for the duration of the war, called Kingston Agate, equipped with a 4” gun, and depth charges.  She was a fine sea-worthy ship, which was just as well as she had to cope with appalling weather  during her duty with the Northern Patrol which operated out of Orkney on anti-submarine surveillance, in northern waters between Iceland and Russia.

It was during one of these patrols that the U-570 incident occured, and for which he received his D.S.C.  (He was later awarded the Reserve Decoration for his service with the R.N.R).

He left the Kingston Agate in 1942 and served generally in command of small ships for the rest of the war. In the forties while serving in H.M.S. Kilbride in the western Mediterranean  he was accidentally gassed.  He was admitted to the R.N.Hospital in Gibraltar, and was amazed to find himself being put on a trolley and taken to the operating theatre.  When he enquired why, they said ‘to remove your appendix of course’. He said ‘I don’t have an appendicitis.  I was gassed, and any way I had my appendix removed years ago in Sligo.’ They then asked him his name, and he said ‘L’Estrange’. They said ‘D. L’Estrange?’ ‘No, I’m H.O.’

He never did meet D L’Estrange, but he believed he was a South African Officer, who was probably a Master with the Union Castle Line at a later stage, and no doubt one of his far flung cousins.

During the period when the Lease Lend  scheme was in operation he was posted to America with R.N. crews to commission two ships built by the Standard Car Co. of Detroit on the Great Lakes, and to sail them down the St. Lawrence and across the Atlantic to Gibraltar.

On the passage to the U.S. he and his men sailed at great speed in the Cunarder, the Queen Elizabeth, now painted grey and packed with G.I’s  (3 men to every bunk) who were on their way home for leave.  At the conclusion of hostilities in 1946 he re-joined the R.F.A. with the rank of Chief Officer in which capacity  he served till 1952 when he  was promoted to  junior Master.  He commanded many of the R.F.A.’s smaller vessels during the fifties and was also seconded to the National Institute of Oceanography in command of R.R.S Discovery Two, he was highly thought of by his new employers.  An extract from a letter from the Hydrographer of the Navy to his defence department  employers on completion of his period with R.R.S. Discovery Two, was sent to him:

‘Captain H.O. L’Estrange took over  command of the ship shortly before the first D.P.R.’s trials and has been in charge throughout the five major trials that have so far taken place. Although a research ship of this type may expect to engage in unusual duties in various parts of the world, these trials have been in some ways of exceptional difficulty, requiring accurate navigation in bad weather in remote waters and some very difficult ship handling ‘etc.

In the sixties he was promoted to Senior Master, and from then on  he commanded what are known in the RFA as large ‘front line ships’.  Generally these form part of a task force headed by an aircraft carrier  or other capital ship, plus frigates, or destroyers and R.F.A.’s  (whose logistic needs for prolonged periods at sea are met by these front line ships who have the capacity to refuel, and replenish all stores to  H.M. ships and R.F.A.’s underway at sea).

While serving in command of an ammunition ship, R.F.A. Retainer, with the Far East Fleet in 1964 he met  Captain Janet Gough Q.A.R.A.N.C. from Cork, who was stationed in Singapore.  They married later in 1964 but they had unfortunately  a rather short (but happy) married life as Henry died on board his ship in Singapore on December 5^th 1972.  Janet and his two children had just joined him for a trip over Christmas to Hong Kong when the tragedy occured.

During their marriage two children were born, Guy Henry, in Dublin in 1966, and Fiona Evelyn, in Belfast in 1967. At that period Henry had been in Ireland for a year standing by an ammunition ship which was being built at Harland & Wolff Belfast, R.F.A. Regent, which he later commissioned and commanded in the Far East.

The Defence Ministry were extremely considerate in awarding him the Belfast posting which enabled him to get home for week ends.  A very unusual luxury for R.F.A. Officers for whom there are virtually no shore appointments. ‘A life on the ocean waves’. In H.O.’s case 40 years!

They were also very indulgent in allowing him to be accompanied  frequently by his wife and occasionally by the children on long trips which  covered many an ocean  and visits to exciting and unusual places .

In 1971 he was appointed Commodore of the R.F.A. The most senior rank in the service.  He was due to return to Ireland in February 1973 to retire to his home in Sligo, had he not died in December 1972 on board his ship RFA Stromness in the Singapore naval base. He had just returned to port on completion of a series of naval exercises in the South China sea.  His body was repatriated to Ireland by the RAF and he is buried in St. Anne’s Churchyard Knocknarea, Strandhill Co. Sligo.

NOTES ON THE ROYAL FLEET AUXILIARY  [ R.F.A.]

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary is a civilian branch of the Royal Navy  with its roots in early naval history. It sails under  its own specially refaced Blue Ensign and the ships are owned by H.M. the Queen, directed by the logistic department of the Ministry of Defence, and under the operational command of the Admiral commanding the Royal Navy.  The ships are manned by members of the Merchant Service on a contract basis, and many of them spend their whole working lives with the service.

At the time of H.O.’s  death the R.F.A. formed a very large part of H.M.’s fleet but since then it has shrunk to a much smaller  service as have H.M. ships under the white ensign.  Its ships included in the seventies, large fleet replenishment tankers (avgas and furnace fuel oil), freighting tankers, naval stores ships ( victuals and naval spares), ammunition ships (shells, bombs, rockets, etc), troop ships ( Landing ships logistic i.e. L.S.L), which were run on behalf of the Army. Each one could carry a battalion of troops, and their tanks and motor vehicles, and land them on a beach from its bow doors.  One, the Sir Galahad, was lost in the Falkland’s war.  She had a battalion of Welsh Guards aboard at the time and the casualties were very heavy. Hospital ships (none in commission in the seventies), and helicopter training carriers.

When forming part of a task force the R.F.A. replenish H.M. ships or other R.F.A.’s under way, in any part of the ocean, in any part of the world. Since H.O’s day these ships are now defensively armed with weapons such as surface to air guided missiles, and 4” guns but at that time they were completely unarmed and relied on H.M. ships for protection at all times.  The front line R.F.A.’s usually have their own helicopter and these are manned by a detachment from the Fleet Air Arm.  The weapons would also be manned by an R.N. detachment, which should be attached should the circumstances warrant it.