42 / 60
40
ST EDWARD’S
r
h
u
b
a
r
b
V A L E T E
O B I T U A R I E S
Vibert had sunk
U-674
and that
other aircraft from his squadron
had sunk
U-859
on the same
day, and
U-277
on the day
before, all with all hands. Vibert
was awarded the DSC.
Bruce Fraser Vibert was born
in Brussels where his father
was in the consular service.
His mother was the adopted
daughter of EB Havell, the art
historian, and his Danish wife,
Lilli, daughter of Admiral Georg
Jacobsen, who had modelled
for Rodin. Young Vibert spent
his early life in Belgium, France,
Germany and Chile until he was
sent home to Feltonfleet school,
Cobham, aged 10, and later St
Edward’s, Oxford. In the holidays
he travelled Europe and the
Mediterranean to see his father,
usually unaccompanied, by boat,
train and biplane. In September
1939, as war broke out in
Europe, he was en route from
Sarajevo to Newhaven in order
to resit his school certificate.
He spent the early part
of the war studying maths to
improve his chances of joining
the Fleet Air Arm, was accepted
in 1941 and sent to learn to fly in
Canada. His operational career
was spent in 842 squadron until
in early 1945 he requalified as a
deck landing control officer or
“batsman”. He was DLCO in
the light fleet carrier
Glory
, part
of the British Pacific Fleet, and
was in the Bismarck Archipelago
[off the north-eastern coast of
New Guinea], working up for
the invasion of Japan, when he
heard the atom bomb had been
dropped.
Postwar, Vibert emigrated
to Canada where he odd-
jobbed and studied for an arts
degree until recruited into the
Royal Canadian Navy, where
he served from 1949 to 1958.
Then for two years he flew as
a commercial helicopter pilot,
mostly in the Middle East.
his men, directing their fire and
reporting back to his squadron
leader on the wireless. The
enemy eventually withdrew,
having taken considerable
losses. Pickard was awarded an
immediate MC. Three of his
troop won Military Medals.
The son of a clergyman,
Geoffrey Herbert Pickard
was born on 12 May 1924
at Luccombe rectory in
Somerset. He was educated
at St Edward’s, Oxford, where
he enjoyed rowing and was
still at school when the Second
World War broke out. After
two years at Sandhurst, he
was commissioned into the
14th/20th King’s Hussars
but subsequently transferred
to 56RR. This meant leaving
the intense heat of Egypt and
moving to the mountains of
northern Italy.
The winter was harsh, the
trenches full of water, and
dysentery rife. Snow, two feet
deep on the hillside, limited
patrolling under the eyes of an
enemy searching for any sign of
movement against the blanket of
white. German bombardments
cut telephone communications
and signal linesmen, waist deep
in the snow and ravines, had
to grope for the severed ends
while under constant shellfire.
Following the action in which he
was awarded an MC, Pickard
was operated on in hospital but
the wound troubled him for the
rest of his life.
After a period of peace-
keeping in Vienna, the Regiment
was disbanded. In 1947 he
resigned from the Army and
decided to train to become
a farmer. One day, while he
was hedge-cutting on a farm
near Hay-on-Wye, a pretty girl
rode by on her bicycle. Pickard
raised his beret and bade her
good-day but she haughtily
ignored him. She later became
his wife. He bought a small farm
in Shropshire. In 1956, when it
was compulsory purchased by
the town planners, he moved
to Hertfordshire and built up
a business in London providing
a gluing service for printers.
He kept a river boat on the
Thames and enjoyed travelling
and gardening. Geoffrey Pickard
married, in 1950, Elizabeth
Pugh, who survives him with
their three sons.
SMYTH
– On 6th March 2016,
Donald Francis Smyth (F, 1947-
1950), brother of Archibald
Smyth (F, 1948-1953). Donald
was Manager of a family laundry
business, and then opened the
Plas Abermad Nursing Home in
Aberystwyth.
STEWART
– On 3rd October
2015, Duncan Stewart (A,
1949-1954). Duncan was in
the Intelligence Corps from
1957 to 1959, before studying
at Birkbeck London University
from 1959 to 1962, where he
obtained his BSc. He became
Senior Manager of Welcome
Environmental Health Research
and Development.
VIBERT
– Bruce Vibert (A,
1936-1940). The following
obituary has been taken from
The Telegraph:
Lieutenant Commander
Bruce Vibert, who has died
aged 94, sank a U-boat and
championed the Swordfish
torpedo-bomber. Convoy RA
59 of 45 American, British and
Norwegian ships, protected by
two escort carriers,
Activity
and
Fencer
, sailed from Russia in bad
weather on 28th April 1944.
Thick snow fell on both carriers’
flightdecks, but only
Fencer
had
steam hoses which could be
used to clear the deck quickly,
and so the burden of flying
anti-submarine patrols fell on the
10 Swordfish of 842 Naval Air
Squadron embarked in
Fencer
.
With each aircraft flying two
or three sorties a day in the
gloomy half-light of the northern
latitudes, in frequent blizzards
and with the carrier heaving and
pitching violently, 842 squadron
patrolled continuously around
the convoy.
On Vibert’s first patrol on
2nd May, in his rocket-armed
Swordfish, sideletter “B”, he
saw three U-boats trailing the
convoy and attacked one, firing
all eight rockets with – as he
recorded – “no visible results”.
Frustrated, he returned to
Fencer
after three and a quarter
hours to refuel and rearm.
Later that day Vibert took off
on a second sortie in worsening
weather. This time his observer,
sub-Lieutenant Eric Hutchinson,
in the rear cockpit, detected a
radar contact and conned Vibert
through glimpses of the sea
below, until he dived from 2,000
ft, looking for “wave tops that
did not break or for white water
in the distance which could be a
U-boat on the surface”.
As Vibert broke through
the cloud, he was surprised to
see not one but two enemy
submarines: “They were sailing
in company, signalling to each
other – no doubt planning
their attack. We emerged in a
dive at some 25/30 degrees.
Correct drill then required
me to aim short and ahead,
releasing rockets in pairs.
On entering the water the
projectiles levelled out to give
the best strike angle, and any
hit was usually fatal.” This time
his noted in his logbook “Fire
accurate, 3 hits?”
Fencer’s
wartime claim during
the six days of the convoy was
modest: “one U-boat probably
sunk, one certainly damaged
and three probably damaged”.
Postwar analysis showed that