Alex Stuart-Menteth
{{Short description|Royal Navy officer}}
{{good article}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Alex Stuart-Menteth
| image =
| image_size =
| alt =
| caption =
| nickname =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1912|08|26|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Merstham, Surrey
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2000|05|14|1912|08|26|df=yes}}
| death_place = Edinburgh, Lothian
| placeofburial =
| allegiance = United Kingdom
| branch = Royal Navy
| serviceyears = 1926–1958
| rank = Commander
| servicenumber =
| unit =
| commands = {{HMS|Berkeley|M40|6}}
{{HMS|Aldenham|L22|6}}
{{HMS|Dinosaur||6}}
{{HMS|Havelock|H88|6}}
{{HMS|St. James|D65|6}}
{{HMS|Obdurate|G39|6}}
| battles = Second World War
| awards = Distinguished Service Cross
Mentioned in Despatches
| spouse = Penelope Giles
| relations =
| laterwork =
}}
Commander Henry Alexander Stuart-Menteth, {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|DSC}} (26 August 1912 – 14 May 2000) was a British naval officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Second World War where he assisted in the sinking of two U-boats and helped capture Enigma code fragments, which enabled Bletchley Park to decipher the code. He commanded six ships during his career. He married in 1952, having two sons and a daughter, and seven grandchildren in turn.
Stuart-Menteth was born as one of four. He joined a navy cadet force in Devon, serving on several ships. After his promotion course, he served both abroad and in the United Kingdom. He joined {{HMS|Hunter|H35|6}} shortly before the Second World War. His ship was torpedoed after a raid on a German-held port in April 1940. He was kept in a hospital by the Germans, and was listed at home as killed in action. When the British liberated the area, he was freed. On his next ship, {{HMS|Somali|F33|6}}, he helped capture Enigma code fragments, which enabled Bletchley Park to decipher the code. In the same year he was given his first command, {{HMS|Berkeley|M40|6}}. He was mentioned in despatches in 1942, while working on {{HMS|Aldenham|L22|6}} after the ship sunk a U-boat, and a Distinguished Service Cross for sinking another U-boat. Stuart-Menteth was entrusted to the Royal Australian Navy in 1949, where he commanded two destroyers. He ran the Scottish Corps of Commissionaires for 20 years after his 1958 retirement.
Early life
Henry Alexander Stuart-Menteth, often abbreviated to Alex Stuart-Menteth,{{cite web | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1341608/Commander-Alex-Stuart-Menteth.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216170522/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1341608/Commander-Alex-Stuart-Menteth.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=16 February 2015 | title=Commander Alex Stuart-Menteth | publisher=Telegraph Media Group | work=The Telegraph | date=6 June 2000 | access-date=2 April 2014}} was born on 26 August 1912 in Merstham, Surrey.{{cite web | url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18748564.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714131445/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-18748564.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=14 July 2014 | title=Cmdr Alex Stuart-Menteth (via Highbeam) | work=The Scotsman | date=18 July 2000 | access-date=2 April 2014 | author=Thomas, Campbell}} He was the son of Walter Stuart-Menteth and Violet Stuart-Menteth (née Lafone), one of four: Walter Granville Stuart-Menteth (1906 – 1970), Frances Bevyl Stuart-Menteth (1907 – 1957), and Lucy Violet Stuart-Menteth (1911 – ).{{cite book | title=Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes | publisher=Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd | author=Mosley, Charles | year=2003 | location=Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. | page=3798 | isbn=9780971196629}} In 1926, he became a cadet in Dartmouth, Devon. With the cadets, he served on the ships {{HMS|Renown|1916|6}} in the Atlantic, {{HMS|Dragon|D46|6}} in the West Indies and America, and on the shore establishment HMS President on his promotion course.{{cite web | url=http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RN_officersS3.html | title=Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939–1945 | work=unitedhistories.com | access-date=23 May 2014}}
Naval career
Alex Stuart-Menteth served on the destroyers {{HMS|Whitehall|D94|6}} in the Mediterranean in 1934 and 1935, {{HMS|Windsor|D42|6}} in the home fleet in 1935 and 1936, the minesweeper {{HMS|Elgin|J39|6}} in the reserve fleet in 1935, and {{HMS|Defender|H07|6}} in 1935 serving in China.
=Second World War=
On 28 August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Stuart-Menteth joined the destroyer {{HMS|Hunter|H35|6}}. Hunter was in Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee's 2nd Flotilla, along with four other destroyers. On 10 April 1940, in a snowstorm, the Flotilla attacked the port of Narvik, held by the Germans. Four German destroyers were sunk and seven damaged, notably sinking {{SS|Rauenfels|1928|6}}, an 8,500-ton ship transporting ammunition. Hunter was set alight and torpedoed, leading to her sinking. As she sank, Stuart-Menteth was trapped by a malfunctioning davit with a leg wound on the upper deck. A rating saved Stuart-Menteth, and they were both picked up by German sailors.
{{quote box|width=246px|bgcolor=#c6dbf7|align=left|quote="I vaguely remember being hauled out of the water, but must have passed out, and when I came to, I was lying on the deck in the German destroyer's wardroom. I remember seeing a picture of Hitler on the wall facing me."|source=The Telegraph quoting Stuart-Menteth on Hunter{{'s}} sinking.}}
Stuart-Menteth was taken to Narvik, at a civilian hospital. He remained in the town until its eventual liberation by the Allies. However, whilst he was in hospital, Stuart-Menteth was listed as killed in action, and had an obituary in The Times as such, which he later read. After further hospitalisation in Britain from April to December 1940, on 3 December Stuart-Menteth became the first lieutenant of the Tribal-class destroyer {{HMS|Somali|F33|6}}. She partook in Operation Claymore, an operation to disrupt supplies, to ferry commandoes to shore, and to capture German code. Somalia brought to a stop Krebs, a German trawler, by firing at her, forcing her to stop. A boarding party found cryptographic keys and rotor machines. This assisted Bletchley Park to decipher several Enigma codes.
In May 1941, Stuart-Menteth again assisted the capture of Enigma material from the German ship München, enabling Bletchley Park to begin to decipher German Enigma codes. Several months later, he was given command of his first ship, {{HMS|Berkeley|M40|6}}, a Hunt-class destroyer. Stuart-Menteth joined {{HMS|Aldenham|L22|6}} in March 1942, and helped sink the {{GS|U-58|1938|6}}. He was mentioned in despatches{{cite web | url=http://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2695-2699.pdf | title=Admiralty Fleet Orders | publisher=The Australian Navy | date=10 June 1943 | access-date=23 May 2014}} on 2 June 1943 as "Lieutenant-Commander Henry Alexander Stuart-Menteth, Royal Navy";{{cite web | url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/36033/supplements/2445/page.pdf | title=Supplement to the London Gazette, 2 June, 1943 [PDF] | work=London Gazette | date=2 June 1943 | access-date=3 April 2014 | page=2445}} after commanding Aldenham in a disastrous mission in the Aegean Sea. In late 1943, Stuart-Menteth took command of {{HMS|Dinosaur}}, and partook in training officers of landing craft. His last command in the war was {{HMS|Havelock|H88|6}}, with which he assisted in the sinking of {{GS|U-242||2}}, for which he was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross.
=After the war=
After World War II on 13 February 1946 Stuart-Menteth became first lieutenant on {{HMS|Birmingham|C19|6}}, followed by {{HMS|Superb|25|6}} on 4 September 1946, before being entrusted to the Royal Australian Navy in 1949. There he commanded his last two ships, the destroyers {{HMS|St. James|D65|6}} and {{HMS|Obdurate|G39|6}}. He went on to work with Lord Mountbatten in Malta, and in 1958 he retired, moving to Scotland. He did, however, operate the Scottish Corps of Commissionaires for close to 20 years, and was chairman of the Edinburgh World Wildlife Fund for 10 years.
Personal life
References
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stuart-Menteth, Henry Alexander}}
Category:People from Surrey (before 1965)
Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)