Herbert Annesley Packer Admiral Sir Herbert ( " Bertie " ) Annesley Packer KCB , CBE ( 9 October 1894 – 23 September 1962 ) was an officer in the British Royal Navy and ended his career as an Admiral and Commander - in - Chief , South Atlantic . Family background . The only son of Dr . William Packer and musician Edith Mary Rutter , he entered Royal Navy College Osborne on 15 September 1907 . Early career . Packer joined the Royal Navy in 1907 . He left Dartmouth Naval College with the King ' s " dirk and gold medal " for outstanding qualities of leadership and joined HMS " St . Vincent " as a midshipman . In 1913 he invented an " uncle " in Australia and was chosen from a score of volunteers to sail the new battle - cruiser HMAS " Australia " to Sydney . As the First World War broke out , Packer stayed on HMAS " Australia " and his first action in combat was off the Falkland Isles as part of a boarding party that captured the German S . S . " Elaenor Woermann " from Hamburg . His ability to speak fluent German ( and French ) allowed him to interrogate the crew . The captured ship was scuttled . As an Acting Sub - Lieutenant , Bertie Packer joined the new battleship HMS " Warspite " on 22 February 1915 . He was trained as an Assistant Gunnery Officer . After the Battle of Jutland in 1916 , Packer was mentioned in dispatches for firing 12 rounds ( though all fell short of their target ) at the line of German High Seas Fleet ' s battleships under local control . The " Warspite " was heavily damaged and direction and gunnery control was disabled . Bertie Packer was also made a Lieutenant R . N . In the years between the wars , Packer served in HMS " Dublin " , HMS " Excellent " , married South African author and journalist Joy Petersen in 1924 , served in HMS " Warspite " , and in the Mediterranean Sea , qualified as a Naval Interpreter in French , took a course at the RN Staff College , and then joined the crew of the cruiser HMS " Kent " as Fleet Gunnery Officer of the China Station in Wei Hai Wei . In 1936 Captain Packer was appointed " Naval Attaché to the Embassy in Angora , and to His Majesty ' s Legations at Belgrade and Athens with headquarters at Athens " . Second World War . On 24 August 1939 Packer was appointed to command the cruiser HMS " Calcutta " . In February 1940 the " Calcutta " and the destroyer HMS " Cossack " chased the German supply - ship " Altmark " . Captain Philip Vian of the " Cossack " led a boarding party , in still - neutral Norwegian waters and freed the 300 captive British sailors on board . As captain of HMS " Manchester " Captain Packer was involved in the Battle of Cape Spartivento . On 27 November 1940 the 18th . Cruiser Squadron attacked and dispersed a superior Italian fleet off the Sardinian coast . Captain Packer , an aggressive commander , suggested in his report that the Admiralty " " stow more ammunition for the forward turrets , possibly at the expense of the after turrets " " as it was " " an experience common to many , if not all , of H . M . ships in action , both in this war and " " the last , and I am willing to prophesy that it is a situation that is likely to continue , that " " the foremost turrets fired many more rounds than the after turrets " " . Between 1941 and 1943 Captain Packer was Commanding Officer of HMS " Excellent " , a shore installation , the Gunnery School on Whale Island , near Portsmouth . In the spring of 1943 Captain Packer was put in command of his first battleship - the veteran HMS " Warspite " . The battleship was the H . Q . of Rear Admiral A . W . la Touche Bisset and part of Force H . The guns bombarded Catania and supported the Allied landings on Sicily and the Italian mainland . HMS " Warspite " was shelling Salerno on 15 September 1943 when a new German weapon was aimed at her . Wireless bombs , the Fritz X , controlled by an aircraft at 6000 meters high , crashed through the decks and one of them exploded in the boiler room . Captain Packer managed to bring the crippled ship , under tow , back to Malta and was once again Mentioned in Despatches . He has the rare honour of having been so honoured for his conduct on the same ship in two different wars . Rear Admiral Packer spent the rest of the war as a staff officer ( Commodore administration ) and then Chief of Staff to the Commander - in - Chief Mediterranean Fleet . For planning the amphibious operations in Sicily and Southern France Rear - Admiral Packer was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire in January 1945 . Later in that year he was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath for his conduct in Italy . The American government made him an Officer in their Legion of Merit , and the French awarded him the " Croix de Guerre avec Palme " and made him a " Commandeur " in the Legion d ' Honneur . Post War . Rear Admiral Sir Herbert Packer hoisted his flag in HMS " Superb " , and commanded the 2nd Cruiser Squadron . In 1948 he became Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Supplies and Transport . For his services to the United Kingdom he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and he and his wife were therefore henceforth " Sir Herbert and Lady Packer " . Retirement . Sir Herbert Packer ' s last command was that of Commander in Chief South Atlantic Station . He was a full admiral now and retired in 1953 . Sir Herbert Packer retired in Cape Town and died in September 1962 . He left a wife and a son , the surgeon Piet Packer who emigrated to Australia . The ashes of Herbert Packer were scattered from the side of the frigate HMSAS " Good Hope " near Cape Point where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet .