Captain John Moore Royal Navy

CAPTAIN JOHN MOORE

For several decades seafaring Cold War warriors of both persuasions would peer grimly out of their bridge windows across tossing grey seas at the silhouette of the opposition’s warship, both with a copy of Jane’s Fighting Ships open at the relevant page on their knee. When John Moore took over from former defence journalist Raymond Blackman’s twenty-five years in 1973 as the editor of this world-class reference work, it carried details of 108 national navies. In his final editorial in 1988, he counted 152 including those limited to coastguard functions, only seven less than United Nations membership.
As the first naval officer ever to hold the editorship, John Moore’s career in submarines and intelligence work was highly appropriate. From the first, there would be a certain holding of the breath by the British naval staff until his annual editorial forward appeared, usually in April, as these invariably attracted national media attention and pulled no punches about the Royal Navy’s situation.
Using a world-wide network of contributors, many of which were official, sending in some 4000 photos a year and a dozen letters a day, Moore’s editorials were substantial and immensely authoritative surveys of the strategic situation by each geographical area, the navies populating the region, their political objectives, ships, weapon systems and future programmes. At the height of the Cold War it was natural that the navies of the United States and Soviet Union should receive special attention. While utterly frank in his judgements, Moore studiously avoided bias in his writing, although a certain Captain Shakarov published an accusation in 1975 that he lacked objectivity and had failed to recognise the Soviet navy’s role in the defence of peace.
Intensely analysing the writings of ‘the indefatigable’ Admiral Sergey Gorshkov who was CinC of the Soviet navy and First Deputy Minister of Defence for thirty years, Moore charted the rise of Soviet sea power from a defensive force to an instrument of world power projection, emphasising the attention paid to R&D and innovation. Each event of significance during his tenure – including the Libyan mining of the Red Sea, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the sinking of the Israeli frigate Eilat by an Egyptian Styx missile, the rise of Exclusive Economic Zones, the decline of the British merchant service – was studied through the his sea power prism.
Some of his remarks were decidedly waspish. Referring to the Gulf area he said; “aristocratic birth is no guarantee of maritime competence” while in 1980 he said: ”the policies of the previous government succeeded in diminishing the Royal Navy in everything except professionalism”. The 1981 White Paper, ‘Defence – The Way Forward’ prior to the Falklands conflict was “an elephantine, ill-conceived and hastily assembled document which proved the truth that the Treasury runs the country and makes a bad job of it”. After the Falklands, besides pointing out the deficiencies in airborne early warning, adequate air cover and self-defence, he noted that the campaign would have fizzled out without the support of the British merchant navy. “While naval effort was fully extended with an encounter with a South American state of dubious stability, the support work was a triumph for the British ability to produce a lash-up”.
His remark addressed to civil servants in 1984 holds good today: “ Defence may not be the complex subject suggested by some academics but it does require education and application if the implications of professional advice are to be understood”.
Commissioned by his successor, Captain Richard Sharpe, for the centenary volume in 1997, Moore’s Fighting Ships swansong was a masterly study of the legacy of Fred T Jane, the founder, who died in 1916, leaving an influence on naval thinking perpetuated by subsequent editors to the present day.
John Evelyn Moore joined the navy from Sherborne School in 1939, specialising in hydrographic surveying and being appointed a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in 1942. Having transferred to submarines in 1944, he subsequently captained no less than five submarines, being noted as ‘firm and fair with a delightful wit’. After promotion to commander, he served for two years on the Turkish naval staff followed by an Admiralty tour and command of the 7th Submarine Squadron. His final tour in the rank of captain bore the mysterious title ‘Captain (W)’ as head of Defence Intelligence 3 (Navy), retiring at his own request in 1972.
He was an honorary professor at Aberdeen University from 1987 to 1990 and St Andrews University from 1990 to 1992. He was the author or co-author of a dozen books with a maritime theme, notably The Soviet Navy Today (1975);Seapower and Politics (1079); Submarine Warfare Today and Tomorrow (1986) and The Impact of Polaris (1999).
His first marriage was dissolved and his second wife Barbara Kerry died in 2008. He is survived by the son and two daughters of the first marriage.

Captain John Moore, submariner and editor
of Jane’s Fighting Ships 1972-87, was born at
Sant Ilario, Italy, on November 1, 1921. He died on
July 8 aged 88