Peter Hammersley

Rear Admiral Peter Gerald Hammersley CB OBE (nicknamed Spam; 18 May 1928 – 16 January 2020) was an English Royal Navy officer who served from 1946 to 1982.

Hammersley won a scholarship to Britannia Royal Naval College to train as a deck officer but his eyesight was too poor.

Peter Gerald Hammersley was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on 18 May 1928, the son of Robert Stevens Hammersley and his wife Norah Hammersley (née Kirkham).

His father was severely wounded in action during the First World War and died when Hammersley was seventeen.

Hammersley attended Newcastle High School and Denstone College.

During the Second World War, rationing in Britain meant processed meats such as Spam were widely used, so, for Hammersley, a nickname that might otherwise have been "Ham" became "Spam".

Instead, he chose to become an engineer and studied at the Royal Naval Engineering College from 1946 to 1950.

He trained onboard HMS Frobisher and HMS Duke of York and served on HMS Ocean during the Korean War.

Hammersley won a scholarship to Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, to train as a naval command (or deck) officer, joining the service in 1946.

He was unable to attend the college due to poor eyesight so switched to the Royal Naval Engineering College, Manadon.

He studied there from 1946 to 1950 and was awarded a first class degree.

As a cadet, Hammersley gained seagoing experience aboard the training cruiser Frobisher and received engineering training aboard the battleship Duke of York in 1948.

Hammersley was promoted from acting rank to substantive sub-lieutenant (engineering) on 1 March 1949 and to lieutenant (engineering) on 22 November 1950.

He served aboard the light cruiser Liverpool from 1950 until he was posted to the advanced marine engineering course at Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1951.

Upon completion of the course he joined the aircraft carrier Ocean and served on active duty during the final year of the Korean War (1950–1953).

He served on the conventional diesel-electric submarines Alaric and Tiptoe in the mid-1950s.

During this time Earl Mountbatten, as First Sea Lord, was keen that the Royal Navy acquire nuclear submarines, such as those fielded by the US Navy.

These vessels had the advantage over traditional diesel-electric models in that they could remain submerged for long patrols.

Mountbatten met with US Navy admiral and "father of the nuclear navy" Hyman G. Rickover to discuss the provision of expertise to a British nuclear submarine programme.

Rickover agreed to provide Royal Navy officers with seagoing experience on US nuclear submarines but insisted on selecting which officers would serve on secondment.

Mountbatten refused this caveat and insisted on selecting the men himself.

Hammersley specialised in submarines from 1954 and in 1959 served on secondment to the US Navy on the nuclear submarine Nautilus.

Hammersley joined the Submarine Service in 1954.

One of those chosen was Hammersley who, in 1957, was summoned from Imperial College London, where he was studying for a diploma in nuclear engineering, to meet with Mountbatten and Rickover.

Rickover was uninterested but Hammersley was approved to travel to the US to take part in the programme.

Hammersley was promoted to lieutenant commander on 26 September 1958 and afterwards served aboard the USS Skipjack, commissioned in April 1959, under Commander (later Vice Admiral) W. W. Behrens Jr. Rickover's orders prohibited British officers from standing watches unsupervised and stipulated that they must arrive in the US unaccompanied by their families.

Hammersley became an exception, travelling with his new wife, and, after five months on board, being allowed to stand watches alone by Behrens.

During this time, Rickover approved the provision of technical support and the supply of a Skipjack-type nuclear propulsion system to the British under the 1958 US–UK Mutual Defence Agreement.

This led to the construction of HMS Dreadnought.

In 1960 he became the first marine engineering officer to serve aboard the Royal Navy's first nuclear-powered submarine, HMS Dreadnought.

Hammersley helped design the Swiftsure-class of submarines and commanded a number of shore installations including the Royal Naval Engineering College.

Hammersley was recalled to the UK in October 1959 to assist in the completion of Dreadnought, whose launch took place on 21 October 1960.

At the naming and launching ceremony, Hammersley was presented to the Queen.

Hammersley attended the vessel's commissioning in 1963 and served as her first nuclear engineering officer for the following 18 months.

Afterwards, he helped train nuclear engineers for the Royal Navy.

He was promoted to commander on 30 June 1964, at which time he was an associate member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) and of the Institute of Marine Engineers (IMarE).

From 1964 to 1968, Hammersley worked on the design of the Swiftsure-class submarines at MOD Foxhill, Bath.

One of the measures he implemented was urinals at the rear of the vessel, a feature found on Skipjack but not Dreadnought.

He served as aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II and was Chief Staff Officer Engineering for the fleet in the 1982 Falklands War.

After retirement in 1982 he served in roles in a number of commercial and charitable organisations.