Groups and Single Decorations for Gallantry
During the whole of this time, he might in the darkness have fallen into the oil fuel tanks below or into the sea. By his gallant behaviour he saved the lives of Stoker Petty Officers Lott, May, and Fenley; Stoker Neil; and Able Seaman Oliffe.’
Polish Cross of Valour: London Gazette 21 October 1941: ‘In recognition of your gallant and brave conduct during the evacuation of Polish Forces from France.’
Bryan Gouthwhaite Scurfield was born on 8 August 1902, the eldest of eight children. His unusual middle name was his paternal grandmother’s maiden name. Educated at Charterhouse, in September 1920 he became a ‘Special Entry’ Cadet in the Royal Navy. He served as a Midshipman in the flagships of the Atlantic and then the Mediterranean Fleet (respectively the super-dreadnought H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth and the dreadnought H.M.S. Iron Duke) and in September 1924 commanded a platoon of the Naval Landing Force protecting the evacuation of British, Greek and Christian refugees from Smyrna, Turkey. After attending the Navy College in 1924 (including the crucial Navigation School) Scurfield was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant and began his service in destroyers. In September 1926 he was assigned to H.M.S. Hawkins, the Shanghai-based Flagship of the China Station. He spent some months in the destroyer H. M.S. Wolverine, which protected British Concessions and merchant ships on the Yangtze River from warlords and pirates. After a period as Lieutenant and then Lieutenant-Commander in the brand-new battleship H.M.S. Nelson, Scurfield commanded the destroyer H.M.S. Skate during the 1935 Jubilee Naval review at Spithead, for which he received the Jubilee Medal.
‘Our Albert’: “Excuse me, Sir. Thank you for getting my chum out.”
His next appointment was to the command of the newly-built destroyer H.M.S. Hunter, which sailed to join the Mediterranean Fleet in October 1936. In May 1937, Hunter was designated as part of Britain’s contribution to the League of Nations Arms Blockade and Non- Intervention Patrols, intended to help end the Spanish Civil War between the left-wing Republican government and General Franco’s fascist Nationalists, who were supplied by Germany and Italy. Scurfield had no illusions about the value of his task and the risks of being inside an active war zone: “Everyone knows that the present non-intervention scheme is an absolute farce’’. His ship was stationed off the Republican-held port of Almeria in Southern Spain: “There are alleged to be mines in the shallower water near the shore, so our orders are to remain outside the 100 fathoms line. And so, we just lie stopped in the middle of the bay about five miles from the shore… Whenever we see an aeroplane we close up at anti-aircraft stations.”
On Thursday 13 May 1937, Hunter lay stationary at her normal location; there was a breeze and a slight swell. At about 2.15 pm there was a terrific blast as a Nationalist naval mine detonated against her hull. Water mixed with fuel oil, flames and steam shot into the air on the port side between the bridge and the foremost funnel. All the lights went out and everything was drenched with oil. Scurfield was on the spot in “about 10 seconds.”
The forward boiler-room, which had been steaming to provide electricity and to enable the ship to get underway quickly if required, was a mass of twisted steel and the floor of the galley above it had disappeared, with the cook falling into the wreckage below. Scurfield jumped into the smoke, oil and fumes, reached the stricken man, who had lost a foot and was trapped by debris. As described by eye-witnesses, “he worked like a madman, pulled the obstructions away and hauled the cook out by sheer strength and clambered up with him.” Moving forwards along the ship, which was listing to starboard and sinking by the bows, he heard cries from a hatch leading to the mess deck below. The ladder had vanished, so “With no knowledge of the damage that had been done to the deck and with complete disregard of his own safety, he jumped down below.” After pulling men out of the darkness of the Torpedomen’s messdeck, flooded with several feet of fuel oil and with naked flames in close proximity, he “entered the Stoker Petty Officers’ mess, the floor of which was, as I saw afterwards, more than half blown away. Had he trodden on any of the missing part he would have undoubtedly have joined the other victims. He rescued altogether from these two messdecks about ten or twelve men who, had it not been for his prompt action, would undoubtedly have died.” Scurfield wrote that an Able Seaman had unexpectedly accosted him: “Excuse me, Sir. Thank you for getting my chum out.” He commented that “It took me completely by surprise and I almost cried.”
After three-quarters of an hour, Hunter appeared to be on the point of sinking, so Scurfield gave the order to abandon ship. In fact, damage control measures had stabilised her and enabled her to be towed into Almeria. Eight men had died and fourteen were hospitalised. Repairs would take so long that the Admiralty appointed Scurfield to command the destroyer Active. He was widely seen as a hero, and when Active crossed the equator on 10 October 1937, as part of the festivities the crew presented him with a large medal inscribed ‘Our Albert’. His Confidential Report read “To my entire satisfaction. He is a splendid leader of men and an officer whose fine character and keen intelligence fit him for the higher ranks of the service.” He was promoted to Commander on 30 June 1938.
War, and more remarkable rescues
Scurfield was appointed Captain of the elderly destroyer H.M.S. Broke on 27 September 1939. Initially Broke was mostly employed on convoy escort and anti-submarine work, but after Dunkirk she was sent on several independent cross-Channel sorties to north-west France, without any senior officers hovering nearby to impart their ‘wisdom’. She was attacked by aircraft off Le Havre, but went on to demolish port installations there before embarking 200 Polish troops and assorted refugees at Brest. Scurfield was exhausted from lack of sleep, but his wife commented: “think he enjoyed it as he’d been mostly on his own. Dive bombers just missed them.” The Polish government awarded him the Cross of Valour for his “gallant and brave conduct”.
Broke’s First Lieutenant from August 1940 was Lieutenant Peter Scott R.N.V.R., the famous artist, yachtsman and naturalist, son of Captain Scott of the Antarctic, who recorded his intense admiration of Scurfield in his autobiography The Eye of the Wind. On 6 April 1941 Broke was on convoy duty in the North Atlantic when she was alerted to a serious fire which had erupted in the engine-room of H.M.S. Comorin, a P & O liner built in 1925 which had been taken over by the Admiralty and equipped as an Armed Merchant Cruiser. Comorin was plunging up and down wildly in a heavy head sea with a gale blowing. There was no hope of controlling the fire and the appalling, monstrous sea conditions meant that attempts by other ships to rescue those on board were proceeding at a snail’s- pace. Scurfield wrote that “At times from the bridge I was level with the ship’s top deck and at others I could see her rudder and propellers out of the water… I was forced to the conclusion that the only way was to nose my forecastle alongside the quarter of the burning ship and for the men to jump. The first ten jumped on board at 9.15 pm… I don’t know how many times I went alongside – perhaps 25 – but the engineers received 685 orders for the engines during those three hours!”
With each ship-to-ship contact, Broke suffered collision damage and had to draw away, until Peter Scott could verify that she was still seaworthy enough to attempt another rescue. Each time he reported, his skipper “was calmer & more confident.” “Alright,” he said, “let’s go in & get some more”. I have the most vivid mental picture of him lit by the glare of the flames with his very infectious boyish grin. And of course he kept on going in “to get some more” until he had rescued them all! Scurfield saved 180 survivors, but was worried that he would be officially reprimanded for the damage done to the upper works of his ship. The Captain of one of the other warships at the scene reported to the Admiralty “I do not ever again expect to see a ship handled so magnificently”. Soon Scurfield was able to write: “I had another signal yesterday from “The Admiralty & First Sea Lord personally” of congratulations – very nice as a change from the usual “raspberries”. This one read “Congratulations on the fine seamanship you displayed in going repeatedly alongside Cormorin in heavy weather”.
Having decided not to reprimand him, the Admiralty bureaucracy began to debate the difficult question of which award to bestow on Scurfield. Enemy action was not involved, which ruled out the ‘on active service in the presence of the enemy’ awards. The Albert Medal for Gallantry at Sea would have been perfectly appropriate, except that Scurfield already had one and the statutes of the Albert Medal did not authorise bars. Ever since Wellington had severely criticised the issue of multiple awards of the same medal, it was established official policy never to do this again. The optimal choice would have been the newly created George Cross or George Medal, the statutes for which had been published and first awards gazetted.
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