Admiral Sir Jeremy Black obituary

Admiral Sir Jeremy Black, who has died aged 83, commanded HMS Invincible, one of the two aircraft carriers dispatched to the South Atlantic in April 1982 to provide a defensive shield around the force of marines and paratroopers tasked with recapturing the Falkland Islands in the wake of the Argentinian invasion. The figures speak of the might he controlled: a crew of more than 750 men, 11 Sea Harriers armed with 40 Sidewinder missiles and cluster bombs, around a dozen Sea King helicopters (tasked for both attack and rescue missions) and Sea Dart missiles to defend the ship.

Black was given less than 48 hours’ notice to sail the 8,000 miles to the Falklands; he had been in charge for just three months and was preparing to celebrate his daughter’s 18th birthday at the time. But, like other military commanders, he was sceptical of the prospects of a diplomatic solution to the crisis and was mindful that any military response must be mounted before the intense South Atlantic winter closed in. In addition, the 1981 defence review had recommended that his ship be sold off to the Australian navy, and Black privately welcomed the opportunity to demonstrate its continuing usefulness to Britain’s defence.

His complement sailing south included Prince Andrew, then a Sea King helicopter pilot, and an unhappy group of journalists (among them the Guardian’s Gareth Parry) who became known as the Invincible Five. Unbeknown to them, the Ministry of Defence had decided they should cover only the early stages of the conflict – the “air war”, as it was known – so they were not given the necessary equipment, training and support to go ashore with the landing forces. They saw out the war in discomfort, soft shoes and frustration as their colleagues, attached to Royal Marine and paratroop units, yomped the 90 miles to Stanley.

Having survived a serious mechanical breakdown to its gearbox system, Invincible arrived off the Falklands shortly before 21 May, only for Black to become involved in a disagreement with the taskforce commander, Admiral Sandy Woodward. Black wanted to place Invincible closer to Port San Carlos, to maximise the capacity of his aircraft to defend the landing force from attacks by Argentinian fighter jets. However, Woodward, fearful of the consequences for the campaign of losing an important ship and its aircraft assets, insisted on keeping Invincible and the other aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes, nearly 200 miles east of the islands – much to the frustration of the marines, paras and naval crews left to the mercy of the Argentinian aircraft in what became known as Bomb Alley.

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Black’s ship also became engulfed in the propaganda war when, on 30 May, the military junta in Buenos Aires claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on Invincible with an Exocet missile. The report, based on a mistaken ship identification by an Argentinian pilot, was inaccurate, and Invincible stayed on in the South Atlantic well after the Falklands campaign was over, finally returning to Portsmouth on 17 September, having been continuously at sea for longer than any other Royal Navy ship before it. Black’s crew were seen ashore wearing T-shirts announcing “There and back with JJ Black”, a boast the future admiral adapted for his autobiography, There and Back (2005). His hopes that HMS Invincible would be saved by the Falklands conflict were realised: the government cancelled the ship’s sale in 1983, and it saw action during the Kosovo conflict (1998) and the Iraq war (2003) before finally being decommissioned in 2005.

Black’s background and experience contained clues about the ethos of loyalty and comradeship that held the taskforce together in the Falklands campaign. He was born in Horrabridge, Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor, and, like generations of sailors before him, was raised in Plymouth. His father, Alan, had served under sail and had been a naval officer at Gallipoli in 1915; his mother, Gwendoline (nee Westcott), also came from a shipping family. He entered Dartmouth Naval College in 1946, at the age of 13, straight from prep school.

He saw action in the Korean war (1950-53) and the Malayan Emergency (1951–52), and two years after qualifying in gunnery (1958) was given command of the minesweeper HMS Fiskerton (1960-62), based in Singapore. In December 1962 he played a crucial supporting role in what became known as the Limbang Raid, when a company of Royal Marine commandos stormed ashore to rescue the British Resident in Sarawak, his wife, and 12 other hostages, who were being threatened with execution by local secessionists in Limbang. The marines were led by Capt Jeremy Moore, who much later, as Maj Gen Moore, was land forces commander in the Falklands campaign.

Black’s other commands included the destroyer HMS Decoy (commander 1969, captain 1974) and the guided missile destroyer HMS Fife (1977-79). After attending the Royal College of Defence Studies (1979), he became director of naval operational requirements, naval staff (1980–81). Following the Falklands conflict, he was promoted to rear admiral as flag officer, first flotilla (1983-84), responsible for the efficiency of half the navy’s destroyer and frigate force. As commander in chief of naval home command (1989–91) with the rank of full admiral, he commanded the shore-based navy. He retired in 1992, having, as he wrote in his autobiography, “enjoyed almost every minute of it”.

Black then took on a range of business appointments, among them consultancies with British Aerospace (1993-97) and Krug champagne (1996-99). He retained an engagement with naval matters as chairman of the Whitbread round-the-world race committee (1990-94) and other naval charities, and was a trustee of the Imperial War Museum (1991-97) and a director of the National Army Museum (2004–10). He was awarded the DSO in 1982 for his Falklands command, knighted in 1987 and appointed GBE in 1991. In 2011 he was among a group of military grandees who wrote to the prime minister, David Cameron, urging the government to rethink its proposed defence cuts.

Black was an unusually popular naval commander, held in real affection by those who sailed under him. His unassuming, laidback manner and softly spoken humour provided crucial support for men in the stressful times of war. The citation for his DSO referred to “a very special understanding of both men and material and … outstanding leadership qualities in maintaining momentum.”

He is survived by his wife, Pamela (nee Barber), whom he married in 1958, and their children, Simon, Julian and Carolyn.