Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Sherman RIP

Kyt · Apr 20, 2009

Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Sherman: Royal Marine | Times Online Obituary

Geoffrey Sherman’s activities as a Royal Marines officer during the Second World War were remarkable for their variety, very much “soldier and sailor too” as Rudyard Kipling once remarked.

While in the heavy cruiser Berwick, he was part of the extraordinary and largely forgotten Operation Fork; the sequestration of Iceland in May 1940. In April, after the Germans had launched their invasions of Denmark and Norway, the British feared that Iceland, strategically well placed to threaten Atlantic convoy routes, might be next. Accordingly, a scratch force of 746 Royal Marines, nearly all of whom were raw recruits, were embarked in the cruisers Berwick and Glasgow and, suffering acutely from seasickness, shipped to Iceland, where they transferred to two destroyers and landed at Reykjavik. Surprise had been lost when Berwick’s Walrus seaplane overflew Reykjavik by mistake when on anti-submarine patrol.

Sherman was in command of the Berwick’s Royal Marines detachment who, well trained and immune to seasickness, were the spearhead of an under-equipped force which nevertheless secured the post office, the broadcasting service and the German consulate without difficulty, salvaging a substantial number of documents found burning in the consul’s bath.

This was a flagrant violation of Icelandic neutrality, but Britain ignored the very proper diplomatic protests. Shortly afterwards the Royal Marines were relieved by 4,000 British soldiers and in July 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into the war, a large US occupation force.

Berwick arrived in the Mediterranean in November 1940 and took part in operations which included supporting the brilliant Fleet Air Arm attack on the Italian fleet in Taranto. She was the only ship to be damaged at the battle of Cape Spartivento, Admiral Somerville’s inconclusive action against the Italians. As was widely the custom, the Royal Marines manned the after eight-inch gun turret and this was hit by two shells. Commanding the turret, seven of Sherman’s people were killed and he, with eight others, was wounded.

In December Berwick was slightly damaged by the German commerce raider, the heavy cruiser Hipper, while defending a convoy. After repairs and equipment upgrades, Berwick escorted several convoys to Russia, Sherman leaving her in 1942 for the army staff course at Camberley.

He was then appointed to the Eighth Army headquarters in Egypt under General Montgomery. In September 1943 he took part in Operation Baytown, the first landing on the Italian mainland near Reggio di Calabria. In 1944 he was sent to Ceylon as GSO1 or chief staff officer to Lieutenant-General “Boy” Browning, chief of staff to Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia. Mountbatten’s pet plan, Operation Zipper, the invasion of the Malayan mainland, was negated by the atom bombs and the Japanese surrender.

Arriving in Singapore, Sherman was one of the first to relieve the half starved inmates of Changi jail. He was assigned under the watchful eye of Lady Edwina Mountbatten to set up suitably imposing ceremonies for the surrender of the regional Imperial Japanese forces by General Seishiro Itagaki on September 12, 1945. Sherman’s family came to possess the Union and Malayan flag that were used at that event and which were flying in Tanglin Barracks when the Japanese invaded in 1942.

After the war Sherman served in the Cabinet Office until 1950 when he was invalided as a result of his war injuries. He then joined John Holt’s, a West African trading company, and worked in Nigeria until independence in 1958. He was also a superintendent in the Nigerian Special Constabulary. Returning to England, he was managing director of Rodex and subsequently joined British Aerospace in 1970.

A considerable sportsman, Sherman played cricket for the MCC. He played for Nigeria as a bowler and wicketkeeper. At rugby football, he played for Wasps and the Royal Navy. In retirement his many charitable activities included establishing the Blackpool branch of the Samaritans under Chad Varah, their founder, and chairmanship of the Yeovil Alzheimer’s Association. He was president of the Surrey Small Bore Rifle Association at Bisley.

He is survived by his wife, Evelyn, whom he was married to in the fateful month of November 1939, and their two sons and a daughter.

Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Sherman, Royal Marines, organiser of the Japanese surrender of Singapore in 1945, was born on April 6, 1915. He died on March 22, 2009, aged 93
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Antipodean Andy · Apr 20, 2009

A man of many talents. RIP.

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Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Sherman RIP

Kyt Άρης

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