Nat Gould

Philip Francis Stewart Gould 1916-1943

Philip Francis Stewart Gould was born on 29 May 1916 at Eastbourne in Sussex, the son of Philip Gould 1870-1942 and his wife nee Maria Augusta Stewart 1882-1962. He was known as Stewart.

He was educated at Canterbury. In 1929 he passed the qualifying examination for naval cadets, and entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in Devon in January 1930 (1). He passed as a Cadet on 1 September 1933 and joined the crew of the cruiser HMS Neptune of the Home Fleet as Midshipman on 3 May 1934. On 7 July 1936 he transferred to HMS Vernon, the Torpedo School and Experimental Establishment at Portsmouth for training on Motor Torpedo Boats. Stewart Gould became Acting Sub-Lieutenant on 1 September 1936, and Sub-Lieutenant on 11 November 1937 as from 1 August 1937 (2).

In April 1939 he was appointed to the first of his commands, as Commanding Officer the motor torpedo boat HMS Vulcan, and promoted to Lieutenant as from 1 May 1939 (3). War having been declared on 3 September 1939, he commanded his ship in action off the Dutch coast, and received a Mention in Despatches (4). He took part in the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940 (5). On 31 October 1940 his ship MTB 16 was lost on a mine in the Thames Estuary (6).

From 1941 to 1942 he was in command of the Motor Gun Boat 43, and commanded his ship in an attack on an enemy convoy in the English Channel in 1941, for which he won the Distinguished Service Cross (7).

Lt. Gould was again Mentioned in Despatches for an attack on an enemy convoy on 3 November 1941 (8) and won a Bar to his Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the action with the German pocket battleships in the Channel on 12 February 1942 (9). From 23 November 1942 he was the commanding officer of the motor torpedo boat HMS St Christopher, transferring in April 1943 to the MTB 639 as Senior Officer commanding the 32nd MTB Flotilla (10).

One one occasion in the Mediterranean, off the coast between Bizerta and Tunis, he found his ship was alone between two enemy convoys, accompanied by several German E-boats. He calmly decided that his best protection was to throw in his lot with one of the convoys. The E-boats, mistaking his identity in the darkness, took up their positions beside him. The convoy steamed on with his ship blithely in the middle of it, until he decided that the moment had come to strike. A close-range torpedo attack sank one merchant ship and damaged another before Lieutenant Gould made his getaway (11).

He was killed in action in the Mediterranean on 28 April 1943 when his MTB was attacked by gunfire from the Italian torpedo boat Sagittario off the island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean narrows. He was aged 26 years. His body and those of the other casualties, together with the surviving crew, was taken to Tunisia. (12).

Lieutenant Philip Francis Stewart Gould RN DSC and Bar was buried in Grave II F 27 at the Enfidaville War Cemetery near Sousse in Tunisia. His name is also commemorated on the War Memorial Newport Pagnell in Buckinghamshire.

He was Mentioned in Despatches for a third time but posthumously on 11 January 1944 (13).

In 1941 he had married Mary Holden of Shedfield, Winchester in Hampshire at Bridport in Dorset. They had made their home at Broad Windsor in Dorset (14).

(1) Western Morning News 23 December 1929.

(2) London Gazette 19 November 1937 page 7262.

(3) London Gazette 12 December 1939 page 8251.

(4) Supplement to the London Gazette 5 July 1940 page 4152.

(5) "The operation which had been in progress for the past nine days was of a nature unprecedented in naval warfare ... Even as early as 28th May the strain was beginning to tell. Lieutenant P.F.S. Gould, R.N. of MTB 16, working off Bray Beach, reported: "Comparatively fresh appearance of troops ... contrasted increasingly as the evacuation progressed with the evidence of strain shown by ship's companies of H.M. ships" ..." The Evacuation from Dunkirk: Operation Dynamo, 26 May-4 June 1940 W.J.R. Gardner (2000) page 113.

"We left Dover at 0630 on 28 May and it was not long before we came under fire from the guns in Calais and Gravelines. The MTBs scattered and eventually reached Dunkirk at 0830. I took MTB 68 under orders and reported to the Senior Naval Officer. Destroyers were embarking British troops from the East Pier. The town was being bombed and there was a great deal of shelling.
MTB68 was sent back to Dover with a hand message from the Senior Naval Officer. We anchored close inshore and began embarking troops under fire. They were exhausted and still carrying full equipment. Few were able to climb on board and had to be hauled in through the torpedo stern doors. AB Schofield swam voluntarily several hundred yards to save the lives of exhausted men.
We made several trips to and from the beach and transferred over 300 troops to the destroyers... During one trip inshore we ran aground, damaging the propeller. The centre engine was out of action and the tide was falling. We returned to Commander Maund, who was controlling the evacuation of the beach, and took up duties towing destroyers’ whalers. At 2100 the wind began to freshen and the evacuation continued from Dunkirk itself, to where Maund marched the troops. We left there at 0550 on 29 May and returned to Dover and then to Felixstowe for repairs." Memoir of Lt Stewart Gould quoted in The War of the Gun Boats Bryan Cooper (2002) http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-11722.html

(6) "Motor torpedo boat MTB.16 (Lt P. F. S. Gould) was lost on a mine in the Thames Estuary. MTB.22 was damaged by mining in the same incident." British and Other Navies in World War 2 Day-by-Day: Naval Events October 1940 (Part 2 of 2) Tuesday 15th-Thursday 31st Don Kindell http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-4010-23OCT02.htm

(7) "For courage and skill in an attack on an enemy convoy in the English Channel in which one supply ship was sunk and three other enemy ships were damaged." Supplement to the London Gazette 21 October 1941 page 6100. "On the night of 8th/9th September 1941, a German convoy consisting of two heavily laden merchant ships with an escort of trawlers and E or R boats, attempted the passage of the Straits of Dover. Coastal Forces were still sadly short of boats and only three were available to intercept the convoy - MTB 35 (Lt. Cdr. E.N. Pumphrey RN commanding the force), MTB 218 (Lt. C. E. Bonnell RCNVR) and a Norwegian boat MTB 54 (Lt. P.E. Danielsen R Nor N). It was also known that MGBs 43 (Lt. P.F.S. Gould RN) and 52 (Lt. W.G.B. Leith RNVR) were at sea in the Varne area and would probably make contact with the enemy and shadow and report them. Contact was made at 11.30 pm ... The action was furious ... the MGBs of Gould and Leith had found the convoy and engaged it with guns and depth charges. Gould set about the merchant ship as well as the trawler, and it is evident that the enemy was becoming rapidly demoralised by his determination. The escort were firing in all directions and it appeared that at times the trawlers were engaging their own E/R boats. The two MGBs finally broke off the engagement at 2.55 a.m. and set off towards home." The Battle of the Narrow Seas: The History of the Light Coastal Forces in the Channel and North Sea 1939-1945 Lt. Cdr. Peter Scott RN (1945).

(8) Supplement to the London Gazette 6 January 1942 page 136.

(9) This award does not appear to have been listed in the Supplement to the London Gazette.

(10) HM MTB 693 was built as a Motor Gun Boat of the Fairmile D class by Brooke Marine Ltd. at Oulton Broad in Suffolk, being ordered on 27 April 1941 and commissioned on 9 March 1943. She was reclassified as Motor Torpedo Boat MTB 639 in 1943. http://www.uboat.net:8080/allies/commanders/10368.html

(11) Evening Telegraph 3 May 1943.

(12) "Lt P.F.S. (Stewart) Gould, leading the 32nd MTB Flotilla from Bone (where it had been operating since April 14), was out with MTB 640 and MGB 644 to patrol off Bizerta ...
0330 MTB 639 receives a signal cancelling the order to clear the sea lanes and concentrate on gathering information.
0730 MTB 633, MTB637 and MTB 639 round Kelibia Point.
0850 MTB 633, MTB637 and MTB 639 round Cape Bon.
0920 MTB 633, MTB637 and MTB 639 sight a wrecked destroyer about a mile and a half from Ras Muhmur. MTB 633, MTB637 and MTB 639 switch to white ensigns.
Two Italian motor minesweepers are encountered and destroyed by gunfire. Shortly afterwards a German R boat is attacked and left on fire and abandoned. Several JU52 transport aircraft are sighted on the beach. The boats close and attack with gunfire.
1000 A Friessler Storch observation aircraft is damaged by oerlikon fire as it comes in to land, on the beach, at Ras-el-Amar. A large ship is sighted in the Bay of Tunis, hull down and on fire. The boats then commence an offshore sweep.
1200 A large ship is sighted and the boats investigate. This proves to be a German hospital ship and the boats retire towards Kelibia Point without attacking. German fighters are observed.
1240 A convoy is sighted and the boats close to attack. MTB 639 has expended both torpedoes in earlier encounters and attacks the leading escort, which is the Italian vessel Sagittario, with gunfire ...
1252 MTB 633 fires two torpedoes and MTB 637 follows suit shortly afterwards. Aircraft make a concentrated attack upon MTB 639. The commanding officer and three ratings are killed and the first lieutenant, navigator and two ratings are badly wounded. The coxswain rigs towing lines despite a bad leg wound.
1310 MTB 639 is stopped ten miles south east of Cape Bon and being abandoned. Detonators in the IFF equipment are set and the confidential books are dropped overboard in the safe. MTB 637 goes alongside MTB 639 to transfer the wounded and unwounded survivors. MTB 633 picks survivors out of the water. MTB 639 is then sunk by gunfire ...
1400 The Senior Officer, Lt Philip Francis Stewart Gould RN DSC dies of his wounds." World Naval Ships Forum http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-11722.html

"We set sail at midnight from Sousse, which had been in enemy hands only four days earlier. As we crept along the coast towards the enemy lines, which were not far away, we witnessed the biggest gun barrage in any war up to that time. Apparently the German army had dug in and ordered not to surrender or retreat at any cost. Special re-enforcements would be arriving, unaware that we had destroyed that plan ...As daylight broke we could see people were engaged in all sorts of activities, men in tanks, big gun emplacements and men building temporary airstrip. This was all being documented to help decide where the Germans would be most likely to evacuate their army back to Italy. As the day wore on we got more brave and daring. ... After that lot of things happened we were attacked by enemy sea and air forces. The bombardment we received was devastating and the boat was set ablaze. There were dead and wounded bodies lying everywhere and all the guns were out of action as the hydraulic power had stopped due to the engines having stopped. Everyone on the bridge, bar myself and two Officers was killed. One of the Officers had the side of his jaw blown away and the other had blood pouring out of a neck wound. Before dying he asked me to ring abandon ship, which I did ... the boat well ablaze, there was a lot of creaking and banging and an awful stench. I then panicked and jumped over board. I was eventually picked up by one of our boats. I had only been on board a short while when another flight of planes could be seen coming out of the sun diving towards us. When the markings under the wings could be identified we realised they were ours and they soon drove off the enemy and returning for a victory roll. They escorted us back to Sousse where we buried the dead. Tunisia was a neutral country. They re-buried all the bodies of all nationality in a memorial cemetery near Hammamet, named Envidaville ... Although MTB639 did not have a long life and lost nearly all of its crew, it is unknown how many thousands of lives it saved by sinking those troop carriers and providing valuable information to help prevent any Germans escaping. MTB639 has gone down in records for carrying out one of the most brazen attacks in Royal Navy history." http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/05/a5319605.shtml

(13) Supplement to the London Gazette 11 January 1944 page 220.

(14) Evening Telegraph 3 May 1943; Western Daily Press 3 May 1943.