Death of Lt Cdr Douglas Arthur Barlow RN
2 Aug 2022 - I regret to announce that MCDOA Associate Member Dougie Barlow crossed the bar on Friday 29 July. He was 93 and one of his claims to fame was that he served in three battleships and three cruisers.
I first met Dougie when I joined HMS VERNON in March 1973. This was only two years after I had joined the Royal Navy, having left my family after five years in the USA and returned to the UK as a callow 18-year-old in 1970 to fulfil my dream of a life at sea. I had just joined VERNON's diving tender HMS LALESTON, initially as Correspondence/Gunnery Officer and then as Navigator.
HMS VERNON’s waterfront, run by Dougie, in 1974 with HMS LALESTON ready for post-refit inspection
Among our other activities together, we sailed a variety of VERNON’s boats including this Bosun dinghy.
Dougie on the tiller with Yours Truly (Rob Hoole) as crew in 1973
Dougie wasn't known as the 'Beau of VERNON' (play on the word 'Boatswain') for nothing. He ran VERNON's busy waterfront as Staff Officer (Tenders) and, like me, was one of the few single living-in 'staff' officers in VERNON's wardroom mess, along with fellow MCDOA member Martyn Holloway. The three of us soon forged a close friendship that has lasted right up to the present day - only a few months short of 50 years. Between us, we established the weekly Harlequin disco nights in the wardroom after the nearby Nuffield United Services Officers' Club (NUSOC) closed down. This idea proved so popular it was copied by HMS NELSON's wardroom with its 'Golden Rivet' club, HMS DRAKE's wardroom with its 'Jago's' club' and HMS DAEDELUS's wardroom with its weekly Hangar disco. Dougie was my sea daddy, mentor and best friend. Moreover, he was my best man when I married Linda in April 1981.
After leaving the Royal Navy, we termed ourselves the 'Not Quite the Last of the Summer Wine' trio and proceeded to sail the South Coast in Dougie's yacht Dougout, often with the occasional guest on board.
We also enjoyed weekly 'Gentlemen Who Lunch' gatherings in various hostelries, often with assorted companions, besides much more. These are just a few examples of our many outings.
Dougie was an active member of the MCD Officers’ Association, the Ton Class Association, the Association of RN Officers, HMS NELSON’s wardroom mess and Thorney Island Sailing Club. He was also a keen supporter of Project Vernon, the successful campaign to erect a monument at Gunwharf Quays, the former site of HMS VERNON in Portsmouth, as a tribute to the establishment’s naval heritage and all those involved - past, present and future - in naval mine warfare, service diving and bomb & mine disposal.
Dougie was born on 16 Nov 1928. In 1943, he joined the Shaftesbury Homes Training Ship TS ARETHUSA (the barque formerly named PEKING) on the River Medway as a 14-year-old boy. Owing to the threat of German bombing, he and the other boys were evacuated to the Tides Reach Hotel at South Sands in Salcombe, South Devon. Coincidentally, Salcombe was where I started life and we often made pilgrimages to the town and were even accommodated by my grandparents while they were still alive. The hotel has only recently been levelled and developed into holiday flats but not before Dougie had returned for a reunion of ARETHUSA boys on board the yacht ARETHUSA and stayed in the hotel with his second wife Jill.
In 1944, Dougie joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class at HMS ST GEORGE on the Isle of Man.
This was his subsequent naval career as he related it to me:
1945 - Troopship HMS RANEE to Australia as a Boy Seaman
1946 - Transit Camp in Sydney, Australia
1946 - Battleship HMS ANSON (Far East Fleet) as a Boy 1st Class
1946 - Battleship HMS KING GEORGE V (Home Fleet) as an Ordinary Seaman
1947 - Battleship HMS DUKE OF YORK (Home Fleet) as an Ordinary Seaman
1948 - HMS DRYAD for RP (Radar Plotter) training
1949 - First marriage as a Leading Seaman
1949 - Bay class frigate HMS MORECOMBE BAY
1950 - Royal Naval Barracks HMS NELSON
1951 - Cruiser HMS LIVERPOOL (Mediterranean Fleet) as an Acting Petty Officer
1951 HMS LIVERPOOL’s Rugby Team: A/PO Dougie Barlow sitting middle row far right. Midshipman Jon Jacobsen (later Cdr of HMS VERNON) sitting middle row far left. PO (later Lt Cdr) Horace ‘Tag’ Caisley MBE sitting front row far left. All now sadly deceased.
1952 - HMS DRYAD as a Petty Officer
1953 - Cruiser HMS SHEFFIELD (West Indies Squadron)
Dougie (left) beside PO (later Cdr OBE as an MCD officer) John Parry of the sloop HMS CYGNET and PO Johnson of the cruiser HMS SHEFFIELD (the original 'Shiny Sheff') in Bermuda in 1954. John Parry (later father of Rear Admiral Chris Parry CBE) persuaded Dougie to study for SD promotion, an act for which he was ever grateful. All now sadly deceased.
1955 - Victoria Barracks, Southsea as PO Instructor for RN National Servicemen
1956 - Cruiser HMS NEWFOUNDLAND during the Suez War when she shelled and sank the Egyptian River class frigate DOMIAT (ex-HMS NITH)
1957 - HMS DRYAD to start promotion courses
1958 - Promoted Sub Lieutenant (Special Duties) (Boatswain)
1958 - Frigate HMS STARLING (Navigation Training Ship ex-Walker RN's Command)
1960 - Coal-fired 'Bar boat' (Mooring & Boom Salvage tender) HMS BARNARD as First Lieutenant
1961 - Seamanship School Portsmouth as First Lieutenant
1963 - Promoted Lieutenant
1963 - TON class minesweeper HMS HOUGHTON in Singapore as First Lieutenant
1964 - TON class Minesweeper HMS CLARBESTON (Vernon Squadron) as First Lieutenant
1965 - Divorced from first wife after two children, both girls
1966 - HMS DRYAD (Divisional Officer Discipline, Welfare)
1967 - HM Dockyard, Gibraltar as Master Rigger & Assistant Captain of the Port
1970 - HMS GANGES as Boats Officer
1971 - Landing Pad Dock HMS FEARLESS as Boatswain
HMS FEARLESS - Dougie sharing the bridge with the Captain and Lord Carrington, Secretary of State for Defence
1973 - HMS VERNON as Staff Officer (Tenders)
1974 - Promoted Acting Lieutenant Commander
1975 - Confirmed Lieutenant Commander
Dougie saving the Queen Mother from a dunking in 1975 although she ended up with a soggy handbag
1976 - HMS CALLIOPE (Tyne Division RNR) as RN Staff Officer
1978 - HMS VERNON as OIC of Seamanship School
1981 - County class guided missile destroyer HMS FIFE in refit
1982 - HMS NELSON as Assistant Area Staff Officer Sea Cadets
1986 - Left Royal Navy
2013 - Married his longtime companion Jill on his 85th birthday
In his day, Dougie and his booming voice were familiar to everyone, from royalty and admirals to the lowliest of sailors. Many will know him for his earthy sense of humour and his penchant for telling dits & jokes as well as enjoying a good singalong. His re-enactment of 'The Death of Nelson', which included swapping hats to represent the various characters involved, was legendary. Some of my own memories include:
When Doug visited Sweden in FEARLESS circa 1971, he found himself talking to a fabulously good-looking blonde girl at the first night cocktail party. She noticed his name tally and asked, "Douglas, what is a Boatswain?" Doug responded that ‘swain’ was an old English term for lover so a Boatswain was a lover of boats. The girl pondered for a moment and then asked, "So, Douglas. What is a Coxswain?"
When Dave 'Chippy' Kirby, VERNON's outgoing Barrackmaster, gave a speech at his dining out in the wardroom in 1974, he said that Dougie (who had been a Lt for 10 years) had better be promoted soon or the rest of us would all have to go down one rank.
A Dougie expression: "I prefer blondes because they get dirtier quicker. Mind you, blackheads are fun to squeeze."
When Dougie and Jill went on their various cruises, they often performed a double act for their fellow passengers on entertainment night. On one trip, Dougie sang a sweet lullaby that had people weeping. At the end, he told his audience that he used to sing it to his daughters, then added, "...but not since they've become pensioners".
RIP Dougie, old friend. I am sure all members of our community will join me in extending our sincere condolences to Dougie’s wife Jill, his daughters Carol and Cheryl, his brother David and all his other family and close friends.
Dougie’s funeral will take place at 1515 on Tuesday 23 August at the Oaks Crematorium, Bartons Road, Havant PO9 5NA, followed by a wake at the Brookfield Hotel, 93 Havant Road, Emsworth PO10 7LF.