Obituary: Admiral Sir Gordon Tait

Admiral Sir (Allan) Gordon Tait, KCB, DSC, RN (retd), Second Sea Lord. Died aged 83.

Gordon Tait had a long and remarkable career at sea, and is claimed as the first New Zealander to be appointed an admiral in the Royal Navy.

He earned his Distinguished Service Cross for "courage, coolness in action and skill as a gunnery control officer while serving with HM Submarine Taurus in war patrols in the Mediterranean".

Later he was mentioned in dispatches, being second-in-command of a submarine that sank a larger Japanese submarine off Singapore in the closing days of the war in the Pacific.

Sir Gordon was born in Timaru and brought up there and in Dannevirke. His father was headmaster of the boys high school in Dannevirke and later Rector of Timaru Boys High School.

In early 1939, aged 17, he became a Special Entry Cadet at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, England.

When World War II broke out, he was in the Atlantic as a midshipman in the cruiser Nigeria. Only 18, he was in action at the battle of the Lofoten Islands, during the ill-fated Norwegian campaign of April 1940.

He later took part in Arctic convoys to Murmansk escorting supply ships for the Soviet Armies. As one such convoy was forming up, Tait, then on transfer to the destroyer Matabele, was ordered back to the Nigeria to take a seamanship course.

He and his captain connived to turn a blind eye to that instruction until they returned from the convoy. On reflection the captain changed his mind and put the young Tait off on to another vessel as they passed through the harbour entrance at Scapa Flow.

A few days later Matabele was sunk. There were three survivors, not including the captain.

An invitation to join the submarine service then appealed because it carried the possibility of early promotion.

Looking back on a career which carried him to the rank of full Admiral he later recalled the advice of a senior Gunnery officer to stick to gunnery as no submariner had ever advanced beyond Rear Admiral.

After the war he continued in the submarine service - gaining his first command in 1947, aged 26. From 1949 to 1951 he was in New Zealand as aide de camp to then Governor General Lord Freyberg VC.

Back with surface ships from 1960 he captained the frigate Ajax on a visit to New Zealand. On one official visit to Nelson, Tait remarked to the port's pilot that a nearby ship, Pohutukawa, had a rather strange name.

"You are the first Pom who has ever pronounced the name anything like correctly," said the pilot.

"This Pom," said Captain Tait, "was born in Timaru."

Promotion then came rapidly. He was appointed commander of the 3rd Submarine Squadron, then as Chief of Staff for the Submarine Command and commander of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth.

Promoted to Vice Admiral and Flag Officer, Plymouth, he held sway over the Devonport Naval Dockyard while also serving as Nato Commander, Central Atlantic.

At the peak of his career he held the appointment of Second Sea Lord from 1977 to 1979, was promoted to Admiral and made a Freeman of the City of London in 1978.

Retiring to Auckland in 1980 he became involved in public work, chairing community trusts and charities.

He was a chairman of Lion Nathan for many years, deputy chairman of Todd Corporation and a director on the New Zealand Board of Westpac and of the Owens Group.

He transferred his love of the sea to the ketch Viking, bought for a dollar from his father-in-law, Sir Bryan Todd, who in turn had paid a pound for her to the previous owner, former Mayor of Auckland Sir Ernest Davis.

Another yacht was bought from well-known Auckland yachtswoman Penny Whiting. She gave him a tour of the new boat and then carefully explained harbour charts and their markings to him.

She was stricken when her father explained that the 'new sailor' had probably either drawn the charts himself or caused them to be drawn.

Gordon Tait was married for 53 years to Philippa, daughter of Sir Bryan and Lady Todd of Wellington. She survives him with two sons, Andrew and Henry, and daughters Georgina and Sophie.

* Denis McLean, ex Secretary of Defence, Ambassador to the United States.