Khaki-skirted hero

SIR – Jo Heydon (Letters, June 28) does not quite do justice to Captain Geoffrey Spicer-simson’s war record. He was never an office clerk in the Admiralty either, before or after the First World War.

He was the gallant leader of an operation to curb German hegemony in East Africa, a feat which involved deploying two armed motor boats from Europe via Capetown to Lake Tanganyika and capturing one and then sinking another enemy vessel.

He was awarded the DSO; members of his expedition received three DSCS and 12 DSMS. He was undoubtedly eccentric, although the khaki drill kilt he favoured in the tropics was probably very appropriate for the conditions.

He was withdrawn from active service late in the war to allow his medical and mental recovery, but went on to become Assistant Director of Naval Intelligence. Some clerk. Mike Sayer

Quenington, Gloucestershire