Rear-Admiral Hugh Tracy CB DSC

REAR ADMIRAL HUGH TRACY

Hugh Tracy was awarded the DSC for his gallant and professional performance as the second-in-command, or ‘Senior Engineer’, of the fleet aircraft carrier Illustrious’ engineering department in 1942 and 1943.
After a conventional career at the naval college at Pangbourne and a degree course as a marine engineer, Tracy went to sea as a watchkeeping officer in the cruiser Shropshire and the carrier Furious. At the outbreak of war he was ‘pushing dockets’ in the Engineer-in-Chief’s department of the Admiralty.
He was still only a lieutenant when he joined Illustrious, the ship having just returned from extensive repairs in America as a result of damage inflicted by the Luftwaffe during a Malta convoy in January 1941. Buttonholed by the chief engineer on arrival: “ You are very young to be Senior Engineer of this ship” “Yes, sir”. “Nevertheless, I want you to know that I do not intend to visit the machinery spaces, except that when entering harbour I shall be in the Machinery Control Room as required by King’s Regulations”. “Yes, sir”. “Have a gin”.
Thus, throughout an arduous period which included the capture of Madagascar from the Vichy French, patrolling the Indian ocean against Japanese incursions, a return home for radar improvements, back to the Mediterranean for the Salerno invasion and eventually with the Eastern Fleet based at Trincomalee in Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka), engaging in air strikes against the Japanese in the Andamans, Sumatra and Java, Tracy kept Illustrious’ machinery in full operation. He was also commended for his quick thinking and courage in dealing with a serious petrol fire in the aircraft hangar and later the fire and the ghastly results of an ammunition explosion caused by a misdirected shot from one of Illustrious’ own 4.5inch guns.
Returning home in 1944, he was placed in charge of a design team working on components for aircraft catapults. His final seagoing tour was engineer officer of the minelayer Manxman in the Far East until early 1948.
As was perhaps typical of the careers of most bright and active engineer officer of that era, Tracy alternated between training posts – he was Training Commander of the RN Engineering College at Manadon, Plymouth, and Captain of the major naval engineering school HMS Sultan at Gosport – and tours at increasingly responsible levels in the Admiralty interspersed with more enjoyably hands-on jobs in the naval dockyards at Malta and Portland.
He was promoted to captain in 1955 and selected for the Imperial Defence College in 1961. While working for the Flag Officer Sea Training at Portland in 1963, he was promoted to rear-admiral and appointed Director of Marine Engineering.
Overseeing all forms of marine propulsion systems and their associated auxiliary machinery, including nuclear, was a demanding task. Tracy led the introduction of a single diesel fuel for all ships, including those in which the steam plant formerly burned heavy furnace fuel oil under the boilers. The extra cost was calculated to be offset by the reduced frequency of boiler cleaning and higher levels of operational readiness. This was a necessary precursor to the fundamental change to an all gas turbine navy which took place from the late 1960’s. Tracy set in train the conversion of the frigate Exmouth as the ground-breaking gas turbine trials ship, but had retired before she got to sea.
Appointed CB in 1965, Tracy became a consultant for C A Parsons and the Atomic Energy Authority and, later, Technical Director of British Polar Engines. For some years he was also chairman of the British Standards Institution’s mechanical engineering committee, much involved with the change from imperial to metric units, a necessity if British engineers were to speak the same language as the rest of the world.
He is survived by his wife Muriel whom he married in 1938 and their two sons and daughter.

Rear Admiral Hugh Tracy CB, DSC
Director of Marine Engineering 1963-66,
was born on November 15, 1912. He died on
September 7 aged 96