Lieutenant Commander Connel Percy (‘Con’) Thode

Con Thode was the only RNZNVR officer to command a submarine, HMS/M Scythian, during WWII. A keen pre war yachtsman he joined the RNZNVR at the outbreak of the war and spent 12 months in the Corvette HMS Candytuft escorting North Atlantic convoys. He volunteered for submarines in 1941. He served in HMS/M Proteus in the Mediterranean in 1941/42. Appointed to Scythian in July 1944 he completed a number of patrols from February 1945 from Trincomalee. In recent years he crewed and maintained the 1892 ketch Viking owned by Admiral Sir Gordon Tait