Royal Navy war hero who once rammed and sunk a German U-boat celebrates his 100th birthday

Captain Duncan Knight was praised by the First Sea Lord during a celebration to mark the retired sailor’s 100th birthday.

The captain had an esteemed 38-year career with the navy, having joined as an officer cadet at the age of 14.

He was serving at sea from the South Africa station when war was declared in 1939 and battled for five years and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his part defending the Atlantic convoy before eventually witnessing the Japanese surrender in 1945.

This week he was paid a visit by naval top brass at Wellington Grange Care Home in Chichester.

The celebration included music from two bandsmen of the Royal Marines in front of Capt Knight’s family and a presentation from Commodore David Elford, naval regional commander for east of England, who handed him a framed letter from the First Sea Lord, Admiral Tony Radakin.

In his letter, Adm Radakin wrote: ‘We owe a great debt to those such as you who served throughout that conflict and afterwards. Your actions both in war and in peace were in the finest traditions of the Royal Navy and are an inspiration to us all.’

Capt Knight was stunned by the surprise and said: ‘I was invited to go outside to “see something happening” but I had no idea it was going to be anything like that.

‘It was an excellent surprise that left me feeling very honoured and emotional.’

Between 1940 and 1942, Capt Knight served in the destroyer HMS Hesperus in the Western Approaches and the north Atlantic.

It was while defending convoy HG78 that his ship rammed and sank U-93 in January 1942 and subsequently the-then Lieutenant Knight was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for ‘skill and enterprise in action against enemy submarines’.

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In July 1943, while serving as the First Lieutenant in the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Goathland, he was then Mentioned in Dispatches for ‘outstanding leadership, skill and determination in intercepting an enemy convoy’.

Having served in the north Atlantic during the early stages of the war, he was transferred to the Far East. Between 1945 and 1946, he was Flag Lieutenant and squadron communications officer in the 5th Cruiser Squadron of the British Pacific Fleet.

He was present for the surrender of the Japanese in Tokyo Bay in August 1945 - marking the end of the Second World War.

In his final appointment, Capt Knight was appointed acting Commodore in Nato’s Allied Forces Southern Europe in Naples. In total, he served 38 years and left the Royal Navy in 1972.

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