Captain Barrie Dickinson
Master of the stores ship RFA Stromness, which played a perilous but vital role in the Falklands war
CAPTAIN BARRIE DICKINSON, who has died aged 82, was master of the stores ship, RFA Stromness, when on the night of May 21-22 1982 she carried Royal Marines of 45 Commando into battle during the Falklands war.
In 1981 Dickinson had been in command of Tarbatness, one of three sisterships including Stromness and Lyness, known as the Navy’s floating supermarkets, which had successfully supported the fleet during the Cold War, when he found to his surprise that, under John Nott’s defence review she had been sold to the US Navy.
Dickinson dealt with the sale, delivery and handover in a polished and diplomatic way, and was clearly trusted and admired by the US recipients.
Dickinson was about to take up a shore appointment in Royal Fleet Auxiliary headquarters when he learnt that Stromness was to be converted to a troopship and would have a key role in the coming fight: he compellingly argued that he was the best person to oversee this metamorphosis; others could only agree.
He proved a good and inspiring leader who addressed problems of lack of space, facilities and fresh water in a can-do spirit and reported progress to London with a series of confident signals.
After much frantic work, Stromness sailed from Portsmouth on April 7 1982, only a few days behind the main Task Force, having embarked Zulu Company, 45 Commando and 2,500 tons of equipment.
Stromness arrived at Ascension Island on April 20 and sailed with the Fearless group of ships on May 8, joining amphibious shipping waiting on the edge of the total exclusion zone (TEZ) a week later.
On May 21, in company with the amphibious landing ships Fearless and Intrepid, the liner Canberra and the ferry Norland, Stromness led other RFAS into Falkland Sound, between the main islands, for Operation Sutton, the landings in San Carlos Water at Ajax Bay and Port San Carlos.
She stayed for six days in San Carlos Water, under daily air attack, before sailing to South Georgia with survivors from HMS Coventry. When these transferred to the liner Queen Elizabeth II, Dickinson embarked 400 troops, ammunition and Rapier missiles from Lycaon, returning to San Carlos Water in the early part of June to unload. For the next few weeks Stromness ferried men and stores around the islands, and after Sir Galahad had been bombed and set on fire, she took her captain and crew on board.
In late June, after the islands were liberated, Dickinson ferried two companies of 45 Commando to Ascension Island for a flight home and arrived proudly in Portsmouth on July 19 1982. He was appointed OBE.
A few months later Stromness was also bought by the United States Military Sealift Command and renamed USNS Saturn.
John Barrie Dickinson was born in Caerphilly on February 6 1937, but it was during holidays on the Yorkshire coast that he grew to love the sea. Although he got into grammar school, he did not make much effort until he realised that in the Merchant Navy he could spend his life on the sea and be paid for it; then he began to study hard so as to enter Cardiff Nautical College.
He joined the RFA as an apprentice in 1954 (when his wage was £8 12s 6d a month, the equivalent of 30p a day), and only 18 months into his four-year indentured period Dickinson was promoted to Third Officer, a sure sign that his early potential had been spotted – and that he was keen to take more responsibility.
In December 1974 he was promoted to captain and took command of RFA Robert Middleton, a coastal store carrier whose modest role was to move by sea those components of warships and submarines too large to travel overland to shipbuilding sites. It was essential experience for a first command and he gained much valuable practice.
The Falklands war was a clear demonstration of the versatility, effectiveness and reach of sea power, but it was also a cathartic moment for the RFA, which found itself illprepared in both training and equipment, with insufficient defensive armament.
Dickinson was among a generation of officers determined to benefit from these hard-learnt lessons. As Marine Superintendent of the RFA in 1983-87 he promoted a new ethos, reforming training, practice and procedures, deregistering its ships from the Merchant Shipping Acts and thus developing their potential to deliver the fullest military effect.
His task included reassuring seafarers and their unions regarding the impact and purpose of the reforms. He showed himself to be an ideal choice to explain these changes, earning the trust of all, and in doing so became one of the best-known faces of the RFA.
In 1987 Dickinson returned to sea in command of the tanker Bayleaf, and he took command of the tanker Olwen in early 1988 when, during the Royal Australian Navy’s fleet review in Sydney, he accommodated the Duchess of York.
Two years later Dickinson commanded the ammunition stores ship Fort Grange, and was senior RFA officer of 10 auxiliaries deployed to the First Gulf War. Immediately after the liberation of Kuwait, Fort Grange delivered humanitarian relief over many weeks in Bangladesh following a devastating cyclone. Dickinson was advanced to CBE.
He served 43 years in the RFA, and through his leadership and innovation, his assured and authoritative style and his commands at sea, he helped to create the modern service.
Small-boat sailing was Dickinson’s recreation and retirement activity. In 1994 he joined the crew of the Jubilee Sailing Trust’s Lord Nelson to pass on his love of the sea and its challenges to young people. After he bought his own yacht, Turning Point, he regularly cruised from Bantry Bay to the Channel Islands.
When friends joined him for a week, they were surprised at the lack of fresh food on board, and pointing out that tinned food should be kept for emergency rations, they took him to Guernsey fish market and taught him to cook, after which he filled logbooks with interesting recipes.
Barrie Dickinson married, in 1963, Pamela Williams, who survives him with their two children.
Captain Barrie Dickinson, born February 6 1937, died August 22 2019