William George Tennant 

KCB CBE MVO

Admiral

27th May 1940: Left Dover for Dunkirk carrying Senior Naval Officer, Dunkirk (Captain W.G Tennant) with a beach party of 12 Officers and 160 ratings, suffering minor damage en route from aircraft attack. On arrival the area was too dangerous to set up the operation planned and she re-routed east of the harbour. Was again attacked and later took an early part in the evacuation of the Dunkirk beaches bringing back 130 troops.

Captain of HMS Repulse at the time she was sunk by the Japanese, Captain Tennant was saved by the Destroyer escort ships and taken back to Singapore with the rest of the survivors. He was born in 1890 and joined the Navy in 1905 at the age of 15. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1912;Commander in 1925, and Captain in 1932.

He was instrumental in the saving of countless lives during The Dunkirk evacuations, and became Captain of HMS Repulse in 1940. His 'below decks' nickname was 'Dunkirk Joe' He eventually went on to become Admiral.

On researching the story of this man, I can find nothing more than praise for him from those who knew him and served under him.

These two anecdotes come to the fore about the nature of William Tennant:

From Ted Matthews in 'Sailors Tales':

Repulse heads for Conception Bay in Newfoundland just after the Bismark episode, short of fuel, she had to steam at 8 - 10 knots and risked attack by u-boats.

After an extremely tense period, it was with great relief that we managed to reach land with no mishaps, and everyone was able to relax properly for the first time in almost a week.

At this point I was privileged to witness at first hand the most sincere gesture from a Captain to his subordinates I’ve ever heard of to this day. The harbour town of Conception Bay was living on the poverty line. It shouldn’t have been the case as they had an abundance of that vital element in any mechanised war, Iron Ore, on stepping ashore you had to walk on it. No need to mine for it, you could collect it with a bucket and shovel. The British Government decided in their wisdom, not to buy this material from these people, some of whom were actually fighting in the war on our side. Instead it was being bought from America and still up to this time Norway.

Our skipper must have been fully aware of the plight of these people, and implemented some small action to ease their situation, which had the added effect of showing to his crew, that he truly cared for their welfare. The area was also a great fishing community, but no one could afford to buy their salmon. He quickly remedied this point by purchasing, out of his own pocket fresh salmon for the whole ship’s compliment. You have to remember, the vast majority of us came from poor backgrounds and at that time salmon was a delicacy; the cost must have been immense. It also has to be remembered that he performed this kind act, with no fanfare or speech to tell us how lucky we were. Rather, he did it because he was someone very special. I only served under two officers, during my time in service, whom I have had total respect for. He is one, the other you shall hear of later in my tale. With this act of humanitarianism he’d both helped the people of the town, and also sent our morale through the roof.

From John Dykes in 'Sailors Tales':

During the trip home from 3 and a half years incarceration and a living hell under the Japanese in Singapore:

The journey was to take several weeks and I have one marvellous recollection of it. As mentioned earlier, my time in Changi destroyed a lot of the faith I had in the officer class of our country. But for one officer this didn't apply. I think I'm correct with the location of this incident. It was in Port Tufick and I was in the mess hall when a Lieutenant came in and shouted. "Is there a Stoker Dykes in here" I piped up "Yes". He came across with a message in his hand. I unfolded it and I still remember the first words although the rest of it is not quite so clear these days. It began: 
"Dear shipmate, I am sorry I cannot be here in person to meet you, but I have to go on fleet manoeuvres with the 8th Cruiser squadron, I sincerely hope you are okay and if any other shipmates are with you from Repulse, can you send them my best wishes". Signed, Rear Admiral Tennant.
I couldn't believe it. He was still the same nature of man I'd served under on Repulse and I never had trouble accepting authority from men such as him. It was the finest honour he could have bestowed on me and I've never forgotten it.

William George Tennant was a true leader of men.

A memorial page about him exists at this website:

Upton on Severn Website

Please contact Andy (webmaster) with any information.

Andy Wade (Webmaster)

Information provided by
Frank Sugden