Captain John Gunning
Naval officer who was captain to the future King and went on to command the Omani navy
CAPTAIN JOHN GUNNING, who has died aged 89, was Prince Charles’s captain in HMS Jupiter; he was later Commander of the Sultan of Oman’s Navy at a time of tension in the Gulf, and also became known as a maker of helio chronometers.
Gunning took command of the Sultan of Oman’s navy in 1980, shortly after the 10th anniversary of the accession of Qaboos bin Said Al Said – who had overthrown his father, Said bin Taimur – and following the start of the Iran-iraq War.
The Omani navy was a raggle-taggle collection of small vessels responsible,
inter alia, for policing the traffic separation zone in the Gulf of Oman, along which flowed some 40 per cent of the world’s trade in oil. He was given the rank of commodore, soon promoted to admiral, and over the next five years set about modernising the force.
Omani sailors had previously been trained in India or Pakistan, and the officers at the School of Navigation at Warsash in Hampshire. Basic training was repatriated to Oman, and Gunning recruited loan service officers from the UK, introduced a cadre of British chief petty officers to professionalise local training, and sent young Omani officers to Dartmouth.
Keen to ensure that there were plenty of commands in which junior officers could gain experience, he also oversaw the purchase of landing craft and of small, fast, heavily armed patrol boats – initially from Brooke Marine in Lowestoft, plus others from France, from Vosper Thornycroft, and from Singapore. He also introduced a sail training ship, Shabab Oman, into the newly energised navy.
Gunning showed himself to be a good decision-maker and listener, with an interest in young people; he struck up a rapport with Sultan Qaboos and, with a growing budget, he was honest and shrewd. He made the Omani navy into a small but effective and highly organised force, and today it boasts missile-armed corvettes, offshore patrol vessels and amphibious ships which keep good order in Omani waters.
The esprit de corps built by Gunning during his five years in command endured, manifesting itself at frequent reunions, sometimes in his garden in Petersfield and, last year, during the visit of a new, three-masted sailing ship,
Shabab Oman II, in Portsmouth.
Vice-admiral Abdullah bin Khamis, who was one of Gunning’s young protégés and is now chief of staff of the Sultan’s armed forces, wrote of Gunning: “He was part of an historic and vital period in Oman during which he played a crucial role, [who] left a strong and lasting imprint through his accomplishments and achievements, [and whose] perseverance and fortitude will always be cherished.”
John Peirce Gunning was born above the Ulster Bank in Dún Laoghaire on October 5 1933 and educated at Aravon prep school in Co Wicklow; he joined Dartmouth as a 13-year-old cadet.
After service at sea, in 1957 Gunning qualified as an observer (navalese for air navigator) and for the next 10 years he flew in helicopters in many Fleet Air Arm squadrons, specialising in anti-submarine operations. Twice his aircraft crashed and twice he walked away, but on a third occasion, on October 17 1962, his aircraft capsized and quickly sank off Portland Bill.
As the aircraft hit the water his seat broke free, his harness burst and he was thrown about the cabin. But remembering his drill, he held his breath and groped in the dark, swirling water for an escape window and wriggled through. After a few minutes he and the aircrew were plucked from the water by the minesweeper Chailey.
It was typical of Gunning’s inventiveness that he emerged from the near-disaster with a proposal for an automatically illuminating, instantly acting light to be attached to the Mae West life-jacket.
Gunning had already commanded the minesweeper Damerham in Hong Kong in 1961, and in 1964 he returned to Dartmouth to teach astronavigation. In 1967-68 he commanded 814 Naval Air Squadron, introducing with his usual dynamism the Navy’s first radarequipped helicopter, the Wessex III.
Promoted to commander, in 1969-70 he commanded the minesweeper Wiston and the 9th Mine Countermeasures Squadron based in Bahrain.
Gunning always showed originality in any undertaking, and when he decided to lift morale by holding a squadron ball, and his officers remonstrated that there were no female guests, he advertised in The Daily Telegraph for any young ladies who might find themselves in Bahrain. The advertisement brought a rebuke from his commander-in-chief, but a sufficient number of air hostesses attended the ball.
In a typical spirit of adventure, the Gunnings returned from the Gulf overland in a Renault 16 on a twomonth odyssey through Iran (where he was briefly arrested), Turkey, Greece and Europe. His wife Jane was pregnant, while the car needed running repairs, which included a pair of tights to replace a broken fan belt.
He commanded the frigate Jupiter (1973-74) on her circumnavigation with the then Prince of Wales as communications officer and flight deck officer. Gunning was judged to have carried out his task – which included an escort to the Royal Yacht with the Queen embarked at the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand, and a number of high-profile visits in the US – with aplomb, showing just the right zestful leadership and easy, confident manner.
After jobs in the MOD, Gunning was promoted to captain in 1975 and returned to sea to command the destroyer Kent: once more, his ship’s company revelled in their captain’s interest in them as individuals and his attention to their concerns and development.
Next, Gunning learnt Arabic at the Defence School of Languages in Beaconsfield before going to command the Royal Omani Navy. One of the sources of his success there was his love of the people and of using his language skills, and the pleasure he took in “wadi-bashing” (driving in the desert), climbing remote jebels (hills or mountains), and watersports.
He retired from military service in 1985 – when many thought that he ought to have been allowed to retain the honorary rank of rear-admiral in the Royal Navy – to work for Tideland Signal, which makes navigational aids.
Gunning loved his naval life, but the sketches in his journals show that he could have been equally successful as an architect or engineer. When he retired finally in 1997, he focused on Gunning Sundials. His interest had begun in the 1980s after he had seen a heliochronometer (essentially a mechanised sundial) in the Khyber Rifles mess in Pakistan.
His first design began on the back on an envelope, and he progressed to detailed specifications for a precision instrument. He made more than 200 of these, individually numbered, and they were sold at the Chelsea Flower Show.
The Gunnings loved all mountains, and an apartment in Saint-gervais-lesbains near Mont Blanc was the base for many family holidays. He celebrated his 60th year by climbing the mountain.
After a whirlwind romance, John Gunning married Jane Popper in 1968; she survives him with their two daughters.