Commander Allan Tarver, who has died aged 84, was awarded the George Medal for a selfless act of bravery in the air.
In the spring of 1966 the fleet carrier Ark Royal was in the Indian Ocean, enforcing the Beira Patrol, the British blockade of oil imports to Ian Smith’s administration in Rhodesia which had unilaterally declared independence, when on May10 over the Mozambique Channel [in the words of the London Gazette] “Tarver was the pilot of a Sea Vixen aircraft returning from a routine patrol, when one of his two engines stopped through a mechanical failure and the aircraft, already low on fuel, began to lose more fuel from the damaged engine. A Scimitar tanker aircraft from the carrier closed Tarver’s disabled aircraft, and while endeavouring to take fuel from the tanker in mid-air, the Sea Vixen’s other engine cut out at a height of approximately 12,000 feet, and the now powerless aircraft began to fall towards the sea.
“In the Sea Vixen aircraft, the two aircrew sit strapped in ejector seats in separate cockpits in the forward half of the fuselage, a closed hatch overhead securing the observer’s position. Tarver coolly remained in his cockpit, retaining control as best he could as the aircraft fell, and initiated a countdown for himself and his observer, to eject at a height of 6,000 feet. He was in continuous radio communication both with the ship and with the pilot of the Scimitar tanker above him, and both testified that he reported the sequence of events to them in a calm voice.
“At 6,000 feet, when the countdown reached zero, Tarver’s observer, Lieutenant John Stutchbury, initiated the firing of his ejector seat, but the cartridge did not fire, and he began to attempt to bale out manually. Although it was now clear that every moment that delayed his own ejection reduced Tarver’s already limited chances of survival, he elected to remain in his cockpit to further Stutchbury’s escape as best he could. He first inverted the aircraft in the hope of assisting in a manual escape. With the hatch cover jettisoned there was hope that this manoeuvre might be successful, although in doing so, precious height and speed were lost and the time remaining before the inevitable crash into the sea was diminished. Twice Tarver carried out this manoeuvre, but to no avail because his observer, having got himself half out of his access hatch appeared to lose consciousness and it is likely that his harness became caught up in the airframe.
“With all reasonable chance of his own survival now gone, Tarver still took no action to save his own life and instead leant back and put his arm through to push on Strutchbery’s foot (the only part of him he could see) in the hope of jerking him clear before the aircraft hit the sea. This was also fruitless. The Scimitar pilot watching the Sea Vixen from above reported that as the stricken aircraft rolled over on its final plunge into the sea, Tarver’s was seen thrown from the pilot’s cockpit, hitting the sea before his parachute had time to deploy within the splash circle of the aircraft crash.
“An air-sea rescue helicopter had been flown off from the ship, but in the opinion of the Scimitar pilot, who was eyewitness of the crash, there could be no chance of Tarver having survived, and he reported this when he landed on. In the event, however, Tarver did survive, and the helicopter rescued him from the sea and brought him back onboard the carrier.
“That he was unsuccessful in saving his observer in no way diminished the quality of his own bravery, and by making his first concern the survival of his fellow aircrew, Tarver acted in the highest traditions of the Service; by remaining for several minutes in the crashing aircraft thereby forfeiting his own chances of escape, beyond the point where he could reasonably expect to live, he exhibited most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger.”
Allan Leigh Tarver was born in Canford Cliff, Dorset, into a family of Indian army officers. Young Tarver was brought up in Baluchistan, educated at Wellington and joined Dartmouth in 1954. He studied at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Manadon and specialised in air engineering, before learning to fly at RAF Linton-on-Ouse in 1962, and advanced flying training at RNAS Brawdy in Wales. Subsequently, Tarver qualified in the de Havilland Sea Vixen, all-weather fighter, at RNAS Yeovilton, before joining 893 Naval Air Squadron.
The Sea Vixen was a twin-engine, twin boom-tailed jet, flown to the limits of its performance envelope by the Fleet Air Arm. The pilot’s cockpit was off-centre and the observer (naval parlance for the navigator) sat below the pilot with no forward view other than the radar used for interceptions, in a position known as the ‘coal hole’. It was a remarkable, versatile aircraft, and the first British two-seater to break the sound barrier, nevertheless, its accident rate was high and over 50 aircrew were lost in non-combat flying, which gave the Sea Vixen a bad reputation, a reputation which had already been dented by an appalling accident to the prototype at Farnborough Airshow in 1952. In the 1960s the Luftwaffe operated the F104 Starfighter which suffered so many accidents that it was named the ‘widow-maker’, but in percentage terms of losses the Sea Vixen was more self-harming. However, operating in all weathers during the Cold War off aircraft carriers by day and night and on operations which were intrinsically dangerous, Tarver and his fellow pilots always showed great care and skill, and apart from this one crash Tarver’s flying was accident-free.
Tarver’s only injury when he slammed into the sea was to his knee, and after rehabilitation at Headley Court, he resumed flying. In 1967-72 he flew first with the US Navy Air Test Center at Patuxent River, Maryland and then became a test pilot at Boscombe Down, where he flew Phantoms and helped introduce the Harrier into service. He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable in the Air.
However, he took redundancy in 1976, trained as an accountant and opened a practice in Petersfield, where for many years he was also a town councillor.
He married first Susan Wolstenholme whom he divorced in 1991, and second Jennifer nee Fletcher, who survives him with three children of the first marriage and three stepchildren.
Tarver’s extraordinary feat of airmanship in May 1966 stands out in the annals of naval aviation history and remains the subject of admiration when his colleagues and successors meet.
Commander A L Tarver, GM, QCVSA, RN, born June 29, 1938, died March 23, 2023.