Flying Fish 2017-1

OBITUARIES & APPRECIATIONS Lancelot ‘Bill’ Wise, Founder Member Lancelot Evelyn Dacres Wise, known to most OCC members as Bill, was born in 1922, the son of a cavalry officer. Though keen to emulate his father’s military career Bill was not so fond of horses, so joined the Navy at the age of 13, going to Dartmouth College to complete his education. Early in his time at Dartmouth the cadets were taken out sailing in the college yacht Amaryllis, and on encountering bad weather were sent down below for the night.

When the duty officer came round to check on the mess deck he found that almost everyone was being violently sick, except for Bill, who was sitting up in his bunk reading Mulhauser’s account of Amaryllis’ voyage around the world.

Bill graduated from Dartmouth in 1939. Within days war was declared and three months later he was off to sea. He saw numerous actions during the war, but never spoke much about them, preferring to say that he didn’t actually see the action as he was shut away somewhere below decks running the increasingly complex systems of a naval warship.

One engagement he did talk about recently was the Yangtze Incident, which happened in 1949, just after the end of the war. He was posted to HMS London, an old ship on which he had previously served during the war, and which was en route to Shanghai with some senior flag officers aboard to celebrate St George’s Day, fully Bill in full Naval uniform rigged with light bulbs strung from stem to stern for ‘Illuminate Ship’. Before reaching Shanghai they received a signal from the stranded HMS Amethyst, and proceeded up the Yangtze to assist, but met with considerable resistance which resulted in 13 men dead. A report he wrote of the incident is wonderfully dry, but does include a reference to the unusual procedure of using the ‘Illuminate Ship’ lights for emergency lighting during the engagements.

Post-war, Bill did a tour of duty on submarines and witnessed the atomic tests 183