Henry St John Fancourt Captain Henry Lockhart St John Fancourt , DSO , RN ( 1 April 1900 – 8 January 2004 ) was a pioneering naval aviator , and held important aviation commands with the Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War . When Fancourt died at the age of 103 , he was one of the last , if not the last , survivor who had actively been involved in the Battle of Jutland . Early life and naval career . Fancourt was born in Birmingham , and was the son of General St John Fancourt . He joined the Royal Navy and entered the Royal Naval College , Osborne , in January 1913 at the age of 12 . In 1914 , at the outbreak of the First World War , like most of his classmates he was sent to sea — in his case , on the battlecruiser HMS " Princess Royal " . The Battle of Jutland , 1916 . On 31 May 1916 , the " Princess Royal " was involved in the initial engagement of the Battle of Jutland . Two of her sister ships were lost ( with nearly 2 , 000 men ) and the " Princess Royal " was mistakenly reported as having been sunk . In reality she had been hit twice and was hit three more times later in the battle . Fancourt ' s action station was in the rear gun turret so he did not see much of the battle . Fancourt was mentioned in dispatches later in the war for his efforts on flotilla escort and patrol duties from Queenstown , Ireland . In June 1919 , he was present at the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow . Interwar activities . After the war , Fancourt attended Gonville and Caius College , Cambridge , to complete his interrupted education . On his return to the Navy he chose to specialise in aviation and qualified as a pilot in 1924 after attending No 1 Naval Pilots Course . The ongoing dispute between the Admiralty and the Air Ministry about naval aviation meant that he held the dual ranks of Flying Officer , Royal Air Force and Lieutenant , Royal Navy . In 1927 , while serving on HMS " Argus " , he took part in the western military buildup in the Far East when European interests in Shanghai were threatened by fighting between the forces of Chiang Kai - shek and the warlord Sun Chuan Fang . After a tour in , he was assigned to HMS " Courageous " in 1929 . In August of that year he took part in operations to restore order in Palestine . Working ashore with the RAF he flew in support of the Army and Navy and made demonstration flights over Jerusalem . In June 1931 , Fancourt was involved in trials , aboard " Courageous " , of a new system of athwartships arrester cables to catch landing aircraft . He was the first to land using the new system which is now standard on modern aircraft carrier s . In April 1933 , after promotion to Lieutenant - Commander , Fancourt became the first Commanding Officer of the newly formed 822 Squadron . The squadron , formed at Netheravon , flew Fairey IIIF biplanes . After this assignment he worked in the Admiralty organising the recruitment and training of officers for the expanding Fleet Air Arm . In 1937 the Fleet Air Arm was handed back to the Navy from the Air Ministry . He later served as second in command of the cruiser HMS " Neptune " then commanded the sloop HMS " Weston " . World War II . In December 1940 he was promoted Captain and given command of HMS " Sparrowhawk " , the naval air station at Hatston in the Orkney Islands . In January 1941 , Fancourt was bady injured when German dive - bombers destroyed the control tower at Lee - on - the - Solent . In May 1941 , he was Mentioned in Despatches for his initiative in sending a Maryland aircraft to reconnoitre for the German battleship " Bismarck " after poor weather had prevented RAF reconnaissance . He also ordered 828 Naval Air Squadron ' s Albacore torpedo bombers to Sumburgh , ready for a strike on " Bismarck " should she come within range , but she did not . While at RAF Hatston in Orkney in April 1942 Fancourt , flying a Gloster Gladiator , made the first landing of the war by a British plane on an American aircraft carrier when the USS " Wasp " was passing through Scapa Flow . In 1942 , Fancourt had been assigned to take command of the escort carrier HMS " Searcher " , then under construction in the United States . This was cancelled , however , and he took command of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla which consisted of two destroyers , HMS " Broke " and HMS " Malcolm " , assigned to Operation " Torch " , the allied invasion of French North Africa . The destryers were to land a detachment of American Rangers . The assignment was to enter Algiers harbour on 8 November , land the troops and prevent the Vichy French from scuttling their ships or wrecking the port installations ( Operation " Terminal " ) . This turned into a disaster when the commandos that landed on either side of Algiers failed to capture the Vichy artillery batteries . These heavily bombarded Fancourt ' s destroyers and " Malcolm " had to withdraw after suffering engine room damage . " Broke " , with Fancourt , penetrated the defensive boom on her fourth attempt and landed her troops . " Broke " was sunk by French artillery later in the day but the crew and wounded were transferred to the destroyer HMS " Zetland " . Fancourt was awarded the DSO for his part in the battle . In January 1943 , Fancourt was placed in command of the " Argus " , now a training carrier . In September 1943 , he was given command of the maintenance carrier , which sailed for the Indian Ocean in December 1943 with reinforcements for the Eastern Fleet , later transferring to the British Pacific Fleet . Post - war career . In April 1946 , he was appointed deputy chief naval representative in the Ministry of Supply . He was retired from the Navy in 1951 , not having been promoted to flag rank due to his lack of " sea time " , in other words insufficient experience aboard ship . He was embittered by being , " bunged out " of the Navy ( as he saw it ) , with just one month ' s notice . Fancourt joined the aircraft manufacturer Short Brothers and Harland in Belfast where he worked until his retirement in 1965 . While there , he was chief of staff to Admiral Sir Matthew Slattery , a colleague from No 1 Pilots Course . The final entry in his flight logbook was in 1956 , by which time he had logged 1 , 317 flying hours . Family . Fancourt had married twice ( Lillian Marion Osborne ( née Parkin ) ; in 1921 , divorced in 1960 ) and Pauline Bettina Mosley ( née Kimble ; died 2001 ) ; he had two sons and two daughters . Both sons were in the Navy - Michael served in the Fleet Air Arm , and Rodney , who predeceased his father , was a Captain in the Royal Naval Reserve and commanded London Division RNR . In 1943 , Fancourt landed a Fairey Swordfish with Michael , then a 16 - year - old Air Training Corps cadet , as a passenger , on HMS " Argus " . This was probably the first father - and - son deck landing .