Obituary: Vice-Admiral Sir John Hayes

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IN SEPTEMBER 1939, when the Second World War broke out, John Hayes was the junior Navigating officer (N) in Vindictive, the cadet training cruiser, after three years as a specialist navigator, spent mainly in Fowey, a sloop in the Persian Gulf, and with four years seniority as a Lieutenant.

During the next six years he would survive the sinking of the Repulse, the surrender of Singapore and the disintegration of Convoy PQ 17. He was one of that generation of officers who had lived through the singular rigours of Dartmouth and began to enjoy the relative peace of wardroom life in the old Navy and the last years of peace wherever it took them. They were to start their war …