Capt Geoffrey Kirkby CBE
House:Wills East
Class Of:1935
Deceased:
One of the most decorated destroyer officers of WW2 - As a sub-lieutenant, Kirkby led the destroyer Kingston's boarding party after she, Kandahar, Khartoum and the sloop Shoreham fought a fierce gun battle with the Italian submarine Torricelli off Perim, at the mouth of the Red Sea, on June 23 1940. Kirkby boarded the sinking submarine to look for signal code books. His head and shoulders were seen emerging out of the conning tower just before the submarine sank. He was awarded the DSC. For the rest of 1941 and the first months of 1942, Kingston escorted Malta convoys and ran supplies to the beleaguered fortress of Tobruk. On March 22 1942, Kingston took part in one of the most famous naval actions of the war, the Second Battle of Sirte, in which light cruisers and destroyers under Rear Admiral Philip Vian defended a Malta convoy against a much more powerful Italian force including two heavy cruisers and the battleship Littorio. By aggressive manoeuvring and the skilful use of smoke screens, Vian's ships held the enemy off until dusk. At one point Kingston penetrated the smoke to come within three miles of the Italian heavy ships and was damaged by a near-miss from one of Littorio's 15-inch shells. Kirkby was awarded a Bar to his DSC. Kirkby was a superb ship-handler, positioning his destroyers with mathematical exactness. One of his two daughters is Emma Kirkby, the internationally renowned soprano.