Rear Admiral Philip ‘Percy’ Gick flew Swordfish aircraft in the Second World War and also created Emsworth Yacht Harbour.
He served in a total of eight aircraft carriers, and was awarded the DSC and Bar and twice mentioned in dispatches.
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‘Mentioned in dispatches’ (MiD) is when the name of a member of the armed forces appears in an official report written by a superior officer sent to the high command, describing gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy. Award holders receive a certificate and wear an oak leaf on the ribbon of the relevant campaign medal.
Gick flew Fairey Swordfish biplanes with 825 squadron from 1941. Swordfish wings could be folded for easier storage on aircraft carriers.
Less than a month after joining the Squadron, flying his Swordfish from the aircraft carrier Victorious, he was involved in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck that was a serious threat to the British Royal Navy and war supply ships.
At 16:00 on 25 May 1941 the Victorious (seen above with Swordfish aircraft on its deck), together with four light cruisers plotted a course to launch her nine Swordfish torpedo bombers at Bismarck.
At 22:00, Victorious launched the strike. Gick scored a direct torpedo hit on the Bismarck in the attack, the only pilot out of the nine to be successful, despite flying to find the German battleship completely in the dark!
- Hear his vivid oral record of flying Swordfish aircraft and Bismarck exploits from the Imperial War Museum oral history collection (starts at 30s) – click here
Even though the Bismarck didn’t sink, she was severely damaged, and was sunk two days later, following a successful air strike from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. Gick subsequently received the DSC for his part in the action.
Following promotion to acting Lieutenant Commander, he then joined the escort carrier Vindex as Lieutenant Commander (Flying) in 1944. Gick is in the centre below.
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Gick always took the side of his fellow servicemen and came close to being court-martialled, after telling a gunnery officer to “bugger their Lordships’ orders and do as we have always done”. Gick got away with a reprimand!
After work on the Atlantic convoy routes as an escort ship, his Swordfish aircraft squadron took part in the sinking of no fewer than five U-boats, for which he was again mentioned in dispatches.
After a short spell in command of a training squadron, in 1952 he captained the destroyer HMS Daring. Although aged only 40, he was known by the crew as ‘Old Percy’ after a nickname given to him by a Royal Navy Admiral as a joke. Gick then joined the carrier Venerable, part of the British Pacific Fleet, in command of the ship’s air group.
In January 1957 he took command of the aircraft carrier Bulwark for her final commission as a fixed-wing carrier before her conversion to helicopter carrier. Bulwark took part in NATO exercises in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean.
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On Bulwark Gick had to discipline an unpleasant bully from the lower decks. The miscreant was told he could suffer a conventional punishment, or go two rounds in a boxing ring with Gick. The hapless sailor opted for the latter and was soundly beaten, not knowing Gick was the welterweight champion of the Navy!
In 1958 Bulwark intercepted a distress signal saying two tankers had collided 150 miles away off the Arabian coast. Gick sped to the scene, and Bulwark’s helicopters rescued a number of crewmen from one of the tankers. The second tanker, the 56,000-ton Melika, was ablaze, and Gick resolved to take her in tow. This was a difficult and dangerous operation, yet Bulwark succeeded in towing her into Muscat
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For salvaging the Melika Gick was rewarded with what was then the highest salvage value recorded (it stood for six years in the Guinness Book of Records), yet he made sure the money was distributed equally among Bulwark’s crew.
A rear-admiral from 1961, he headed naval flying training until his retirement in 1964, aged 51. He decided to give up part of his retirement pension in exchange for a lump sum, throwing himself into the demanding project of turning the logging ponds at Emsworth into a brand new yacht harbour.
Making use of local plant hire companies like Marsh, he did much of the physical work of creating the yacht harbour himself, losing a finger in the process! Within five years he had created the Emsworth Yacht Harbour, one of the first such enterprises in the country.
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Percy Gick met his wife Aylmer Rowntree at Emsworth Sailing Club, marrying her just before World War II in 1936.
He was chairman of the Emsworth Shipyard Group from 1965 until he sold the business in 1990. A keen yachtsman, he was also a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and the Royal Ocean Racing Club. He was appointed OBE in 1946 and CBE in 1963.
- Bourne Trail page on Emsworth Sailing club – click here
- Read more about Emsworth Sailing Club – click here
- Emsworth Yacht Harbour and virtual tour – click here