Rear Admiral Robert St Vincent Sherbrooke, (8 January 1901 – 13 June 1972) was a senior officer in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

and a recipient of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...

, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Early life

Born in

Oxton, Nottinghamshire Oxton is a village in Nottinghamshire, England, with a 568 residents at the 2011 census. It is located 5 miles west of Southwell, 5 miles north of Lowdham, 10 miles NE of Nottingham and 2 miles NE of Calverton, and lies on the B6386, and is ve ...

, Sherbrooke attended the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth and joined the

in 1917 as a midshipman aboard . He was promoted to commander in 1935 and served aboard the aircraft carrier . His wartime commands were all destroyers.

Victoria Cross

Sherbrooke was 41 years old, and a captain in the Royal Navy during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

when the following deed took place during the

Battle of the Barents Sea The Battle of the Barents Sea was a World War II naval engagement on 31 December 1942 between warships of the German Navy (''Kriegsmarine'') and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR. The action took place in the Bare ...

for which he was awarded the VC. On 31 December 1942 off

North Cape, Norway North Cape ( no, Nordkapp; sme, Davvenjárga) is a cape on the northern coast of the island of Magerøya in Northern Norway. The cape is in Nordkapp Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The European route E69 highway has its nort ...

, in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

, Captain Sherbrooke in was senior officer in command of destroyers escorting an important convoy for North Russia, when he made contact with a vastly superior enemy force—the heavy cruiser ''Hipper'' and the pocket battleship ''Lutzow''. Four times the enemy tried to attack the convoy but was forced back each time. Early in the action Captain Sherbrooke was seriously wounded in the face and temporarily blinded. Nevertheless, he continued to direct the ships under his command and even when the next senior officer had assumed control, he insisted on receiving all reports of the action until the convoy was out of danger. His actions—and the German ships' failure to neutralize the convoy despite its superior force—were pivotal in Hitler's order to end the use of surface fleet of the Kriegsmarine at the beginning of 1943.

Later life

From July 1945 to mid-1946, Sherbrooke was commanding officer of the cruiser . He later achieved the rank of rear admiral. He was appointed

High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Nottinghamshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuri ...

for 1958–59. His daughter is Dione Digby, Lady Digby. He died in his home town of Oxton, aged 71.

References

External links

Captain R.S.V. Sherbrooke
in ''The Art of War'' exhibition at the

UK National Archives , type = Non-ministerial department , seal = , nativename = , logo = Logo_of_The_National_Archives_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg , logo_width = 150px , logo_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , dissolved = , superseding = , juris ...

Location of grave and VC medal
''(Nottinghamshire)''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherbrooke, Robert St. Vincent 1901 births 1972 deaths Burials in Nottinghamshire People from Newark and Sherwood (district) Royal Navy rear admirals Companions of the Order of the Bath Free Foresters cricketers Companions of the Distinguished Service Order People educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne Royal Navy officers of World War I Royal Navy officers of World War II Royal Navy recipients of the Victoria Cross British World War II recipients of the Victoria Cross Lord-Lieutenants of Nottinghamshire High Sheriffs of Nottinghamshire Military personnel from Nottinghamshire Recipients of the King Haakon VII Freedom Cross