Obituary

November 11, 2004

REAR-ADMIRAL DAVID KIRKE-FIGHTER PILOT AND SQUADRON

COMMANDER WHO CREATED AND TRAINED A FLEET AIR ARM
FOR THE INDIAN NAVY
An aviator of wide experience, David Kirke was appointed CBE in
recognition of his exemplary work in the Indian Navy as Chief of Naval
Aviation. Stationed at Delhi for three and a half years from December
1958, he was the last British naval officer to be employed in a senior
post in the Indian Navy; the final British C-in-C Vice-Admiral Sir
Stephen Carlill, having been relieved by Vice-Admiral Ram Dass Katari
in April that year.
After independence, India sought to fill a strategic vacuum in the
Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal and establish a preponderance of
naval power vis--vis her neighbours. Although the Indian stance,
which later in the 1960s leant towards the Soviet Union for naval
armament, was at that time ostentatiously neutral between East and
West, the British, taking a realistic view of Indias financial and
technical capacity, supported the sale of a light fleet carrier, the
Hercules, then under construction. Modernised with an angled deck
and named Vikrant, this carriers air group contained British Sea Hawk
jet fighters and French Breguet Alize anti-submarine aircraft.
Kirkes task was to create a safe and efficient naval air arm. An Indian
naval officer colleague recalled that his work was an absolute triumph.
He had a tremendous rapport with everyone in the Service. He was
highly respected by our senior air force figures and his management of
the French element was masterly.
Kirke was responsible for organising the pilot training pipeline in the
UK, squadron inspections, training Vikrants crew in air matters and
arranging her final work-up and inspection by a Royal Navy team of
Malta in 1961. Her arrival at Bombay was attended by the Indian Prime
Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Kirke selected and built up an airfield at
Goa as Indias first dedicated naval air station.
Using the words package deal in some piece of Naval headquarter
paperwork, he was questioned as to its meaning by a junior Indian civil
servant (a senior would not have been fazed). Kirke replied, a package
deal means lock, stock and barrel or hook, line and sinker
David Walter Kirke was born in 1915. From the Royal Naval College
Dartmouth, he went to sea in the battle cruiser Renown in August

1932, transferring to the cruiser Sufolk a year later and going out to
the China station for a busy commission during the escalating SinoJapanese conflict.
He subsequently undertook flying training at RAF Leuchars, going solo
in June 1937. His flight log records a forced landing on Johnny Copes
battlefield at Prestonpans. He was towed home by road. Throughout
1938, he flew Swordfish biplanes from the Home Fleet carriers Furious
and Argus. As war broke out, he converted to flying the Walrus
amphibian and went to Freetown, Sierra Leone, in the seaplane carrier
Albatross, whose aircraft carried out anti-submarine patrols over the
West Africa convoy routes.
In August 1940 he joined the cruiser Nigeria. As the flagship of Force K
under Rear-Admiral H. M. Burrough, Nigeria took part in the evacuation
of Spitzbergen in July 1941, Kirke being employed, in his own words,
rounding up seal trappers
Nigeria also operated in support of the perilous series of convoys to
Murmansk. Kirkes many flights catapulted of the cruiser included 55
operational sorties and two forced landings. Often used for antisubmarine patrol, Kirke also searched for lost shipping, other convoys
and on one occasion the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer.
During the passage of Convoy PQ15, Kirke pestered the higher
command to be allowed to launch and chase the inevitable shadowing
Focke-Wulf Condor, a heavily armed four-engine bomber. Kirkes
telegraphist/air gunner said, A mad suicidal idea. It was twice as fast
as a Walrus. I am so glad the admiral turned it down. But typical of
David, on leaving Nigeria, Kirke had his performance assessed as
exceptional.
Having qualified as a fighter pilot, in August 1942 Kirke took command
of 887 Squadron. Its Seafires embarked in the light fleet carrier Unicorn
and deployed to the Mediterranean for Operation Avalanche, the
Salerno landings, and other activities.
In January 1944, he joined the staf of Flag Officer (Air) Home and was
appointed OBE in 1946. He saw service in the carrier Glory in the Far
East as air group commander of two squadrons, followed by two years
loan service with the Royal Australian Navy.
In June 1949, he was promoted to Commander and appointed second
in command of the air station at Lee-on-Solent. His final seagoing tour
in 1953 was as Commander (air) of the carrier Illustrious, then engaged
in trials and the training of new aircrew undergoing their first deck-

landing practice. His performance in various staf posts earned early

promotion to captain and an Admiralty assistant directorship.
On return from India, Kirke was appointed in command of the naval air
station at Lossiemouth. One of his pilots records: It was a reign of
terror. He was a terrible bully, but if you knew your onions and stood
up to him, he was fine. Very much a ladies man and partygoer, he was
a tiger on the squash court and beat all us younger officers. He could
run faster too. Lossie absolutely hummed with brilliantly efficiency.
In January 1968, Kirke was promoted to Rear-Admiral as Flag Officer
Naval Flying Training at Yeovilton, as a consequence of resignations
higher up caused by the Governments decision to eliminate large
carriers and the Navys fixed wing aviation, in part because of Air
Ministry arguments. Indeed, Kirkes after-dinner speeches were often
antipathetic to the RAF. Some of his colleagues believed that, as a prewar aviator, he blamed the neglect of Fleet Air Arm materiel by the RAF
before the In skip Award of 1937 for the deaths of several of his brother
naval airmen.

Kirke was appointed CB in 1967. After leaving the Royal Navy in 1968,
Kirke, as a director of Thermoskyships, subsequently Airship Industries,
used his wide acquaintanceship to raise backing for and promote the
use of large rigid airships. Although achieving a Stock Exchange
launch, the venture collapsed after disagreements concerning the
future of less ambitious non-rigid airships.

His first marriage to Tessa OConnor was dissolved in 1950. He is

survived by his second wife Marion Gibb, always known as Moira,
whom he married in 1956, and by their son and daughter, and a son of
his first marriage.
Rear-Admiral David Kirke, CB, CBE, naval aviator, was born on March
13, 1915. He died on October 29, 2004, aged 89.