Talking History - Commander Bill King

Commander William Donald Aelian ‘Bill’ King is a retired British naval officer, yachtsman and author. He is also the oldest surviving World War II submarine commander.

Bill King was born on 23 June 1910. He was the son of William Albert de Courcy King and Georgina Marie MacKenzie. His grandfather, also William King, was born in Glenoir, Taylor’s Hill. He was the first professor of natural history and geology in Queen’s College Galway (NUIG). He was appointed when the college opened in 1849 and was the first to argue that Neanderthals were a separate species from modern humans.

Commander King’s father, William, a Lieutenant Colonel in the British army, was a decorated soldier, being awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1916 during the Great War. He was killed on 27 May 1917 at the age of 42, and was buried at Dranoutre Military Cemetery in Belgium.

As a result of his father’s death, young Bill King was brought up by his mother and grandmother. He was an athletic youth, being a boxer and a champion long-distance runner.

In 1922, after finishing preparatory school, he attended the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. Upon finishing college in 1927, he was first assigned to the battleship HMS Resolution. He became a midshipman. He served on the submarine HMS Orpheus from June 1932 until January 1934.

In 1935, Bill King was appointed First Lieutenant, serving on HMS Pigmy. After duty on a number of other vessels, he was appointed Commanding Officer of HMS Snapper.

When World War II broke out, King was ordered to patrol the North Sea. Between December 1939 and July 1940, the Snapper sank six enemy ships. In 1941, he was transferred to the T-Class submarine, HMS Trusty, serving in the Mediterranean Sea. From 21 July 1943 to August 1945, he was Commanding Officer of the T-class submarine HMS Telemachus. Under his command, Telemachus sunk the Japanese submarine I-I66 in the Strait of Malacca on 17 July 1944. He had tracked the enemy vessel for 30 minutes then fired a spread of six torpedoes, sinking the Japanese sub.

During the war, King was promoted to Commander, and was awarded seven medals, including the Distinguished Service Order for his ‘…daring, endurance and resource in the conduct of hazardous and successful operations in His Majesty’s Submarines against the enemy’ (9 May 1940).

On 6 September 1940, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for ‘…bravery and determination during arduous and successful patrols in H.M. Submarines’. A Bar was added to his DSO on 16 January 1945 ‘For outstanding courage, skill and determination in one of H.M. Submarines in successful patrols in Far Eastern waters’. (In 2006, he received an eighth medal, the Arctic Emblem.)

He ended his distinguished Royal Navy career as Executive Officer on the submarine depot ship HMS Forth on which he had served from 1 September 1945 to April 1946. He formally retired from the navy on 9 May 1948.

On 1 January 1949, Bill King married Anita Leslie. She was the eldest child of Sir John Randolph Shane Leslie and his wife Marjorie Ide. She was the daughter of the US ambassador to Spain. Anita had been an ambulance driver in the French Army from 1944 to 1945. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1945 by General Charles de Gaulle. After the war, they lived in a hunting lodge outside Oranmore village. It was designed and built by Bill. They were both avid foxhunters. To help combat his wife’s asthma, he developed an organic farm and garden to feed his family. In 1946, Oranmore Castle became part of the family property. Bill and Anita had two children, Richard and Leonie.

In March 1968, Bill King became the oldest participant in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, the first organised round the world solo yacht race. Some time later, he gave his reasons for taking part in the race, saying it was a means of recovering psychologically from 15 years of service in submarines, which he said had left him ‘a nervous wreck’. He had already planned a solo trip around the world before he heard about the race. In 1973, he achieved this dream and sailed around the world alone. His boat, Galway Blazer II, was a two-masted cold-moulded plywood schooner and was specially designed for him by Angus Primrose.

Two years later, in 1975, the Cruising Club of America awarded Bill King the Blue Water Medal in recognition of his feat. That same year Galway Blazer II was sold to Peter Crowther, the landlord of a Devon pub. The boat was lost on 24 June 1996 during the tenth Singlehanded Transatlantic Race from Plymouth in England to Newport, Rhode Island in the United States. Bill was filmed for two television documentaries about the Golden Globe Race and another about his wartime experiences, which still fascinates documentary filmmakers. His book, ‘The Stick and The Stars: The Life & Times of Commander Bill King’, is a fascinating account of his experiences as a submarine commander. It was reported that young sailors during World War II would request to sail under his command as his reputation as an excellent seaman was already legendary.

Even today, his experiences continue to attract media attention. In 2004, Akira Tsurukame, the son of the Chief Engineer who perished when the I-166 was sunk, arrived in Oranmore to meet Bill King. Another man, Katja Boonstra also travelled to Oranmore for this meeting. His father had lost his life when the I-166 sank the Dutch submarine K XVI. Together the men planted a tree at Oranmore Castle in honour of their fathers. Akira Tsurukame subsequently released videos of his interviews with Bill King on the internet.

In July 2006, the Project 06 art exhibition in Galway referenced the ‘Response to Japanese Peace and Reconciliation’. It was arranged in Swan House and featured art-works by his daughter Leonie and his granddaughter Heather Finn. The ‘Lost at Sea’ installation was set on stories told by Bill King to electronic music and visual artist Roisin Coyle.

In 2009, Bill King’s great nephew Luke Leslie produced the short film titled King of the Waves, which dramatised King’s solo circumnavigation of the globe and his encounter with a great white shark. It also included interviews with the man himself. It was screened before the King family in Oranmore on his ninety-ninth birthday. It was then premiered at the 2009 Galway, Cork and Kerry film festivals.

Bill King has gained legendary status through his remarkable courage and attention to duty and continues to live in Oranmore.

Events of Note: Congratulations to Caitlín Nic Dhonnacha, Bainisteoir Ionad Oidhreachta Leitir Mealláin agus Gharumna for her achievements in the Golden Mile of Galway Awards, which were held in the Claregalway Hotel before Christmas. She was awarded the Special Endeavour Award. Caitlín is also manager of the Heritage Centre in Lettermullen and, along with John Bhaba Jaick Ó Congaola, produced a wonderful calendar for 2012 with images from the heritage collection.