Rear-admiral Colin Cooke-priest
Naval aviator who overcame both seasickness and airsickness to become head of the Fleet Air Arm
REAR-ADMIRAL COLIN COOKEPRIEST, who has died aged 81, overcame sea- and airsickness, qualified twice over for the Goldfish Club – for those who have ditched in the sea –, and rose to be Flag Officer Naval Aviation.
Cooke-priest was one of six Old Marlburians to enter Dartmouth in September 1957. His first ship was a small minesweeper in the unquiet waters off Scotland, where he was “as sick as a dog”, and a sympathetic senior officer had him moved to a larger ship. All Cooke-priest wanted to do was drive ships, and for two years he served worldwide at sea, but when the Admiralty decided that more longcareer officers were needed in the Fleet Air Arm, he was press-ganged into flying training as an observer, as the Navy calls its air navigators.
But he discovered that he also suffered very badly from airsickness, and failed the high-altitude selection test, ruling him out of fixed-wing flying and limiting him to helicopters – “which I really didn’t want”.
Rather than excuse himself on medical grounds and return to general service, Cooke-priest persevered and completed the course, demonstrating his willpower and determination – qualities which, combined with his intellect and personal charm, contributed to his subsequent successful career.
He gained his wings in 1962 before joining 814 Naval Air Squadron, and for the next few years he flew in anti-submarine helicopters as the “brains” who directed operations from the cabin of the aircraft. In the carriers Victorious and Albion he saw service in Aden, the Far East and in Borneo.
Two Wessex helicopters sank under him. At night on September 10 1963, he recalled, in a “hot and glassy calm, when it takes enormous skill to slither into a hover at 40 feet, a couple of inexperienced pilots were a bit insensitive with the controls and the tail went in, followed quickly by the rest of the helicopter”. Cooke-priest and his crew were rescued by the frigate Eskimo.
The second ditching occurred on November 13 1969, while on exchange with the Royal Australian Navy. While his helicopter was transferring stores to the destroyer Vampire, the winch cable snagged on the ship’s superstructure, snapping as the ship rolled, and rebounding into the helicopter’s rotorblades, causing it to crash into the sea.
Again, all were rescued. Cooke-priest mused that underwater escape drill “was total second nature … one just has a drink with the pilot afterwards, and that’s an end to it.”
Colin Herbert Dickinson Cooke-priest was born in London on March 17 1939, son of the distinguished Army dermatologist Dr WHD Priest. He attended Marlborough College.
Promoted commander in 1973, Cookepriest commanded the frigates Plymouth (1975–76) and Berwick (1976), before becoming the “future helicopter desk” in the Ministry of Defence, where he helped to write the first specification for the Merlin helicopter. In 1979 he was appointed naval assistant to Admiral Sir Jim Eberle, the Commander-in-chief Fleet.
Promoted to captain, he returned to the MOD as Assistant Director of Naval Air Warfare (1981-82); with his professionalism, his sharp staff work and his ability to get the best out of people, he rose to the challenge of restoring morale after the misguided Nott Defence Review and helped put the Fleet Air Arm on the front foot during the
Falklands war. Later appointments included command of the newly built frigate Boxer (1983–85), and Brilliant (1987–89), when he was also Senior Naval Officer Middle East responsible for patrols in the Persian Gulf.
He held two appointments as a rearadmiral: as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff (Operations) to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (1989–90), and Flag Officer Naval Aviation (1990–93), when he was the first observer to head the Fleet Air Arm. His last function in uniform was to award wings to his son.
After the Navy, from 1994 to 1999 Cooke-priest was CEO of the Trident Trust, an educational charity whose principal activity was placing more than 150,000 young people annually in work experience from 60 offices nationwide.
He was made a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1992 and was Master of the Honourable Company of Air Pilots in 2009-10. He was active in several charities, and a gentleman usher to the Queen from 1994 onwards; he was appointed CB in 1993 and CVO in 2009.
A very senior officer said Cooke-priest “was one of the vertebrae which make up the backbone of the Service. Totally reliable, loyal, extremely able in every job he tackled, and above all one of the nicest and most good-humoured colleagues one could possibly work with”.
Colin met his wife Sue Hobler at Hal Far in Malta, where she was the Wren giving orders with a “golden voice in the control tower”: he hurried to find her, and they arranged meetings via Morse.
They married in 1965 and she survives him along with their two sons and two daughters.