Lt Cmdr Neil Rutherford,

DSC DSC or Dsc may refer to: Education * Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) * District Selection Committee, an entrance exam in India * Doctor of Surgical Chiropody, superseded in the 1960s by Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Educational institutions * Dyal Sin ...

, (15 May 1922 – 24 September 1976) was a British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

commander and

mass murderer Mass murder is the violent crime of murder, killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more ...

. He saw active service in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

. In 1958 he served with the Underwater Weapons Material Dept. He committed suicide in

Penmaenmawr Penmaenmawr (, ) is a town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, which was formerly in the parish of Dwygyfylchi and the traditional county of Caernarfonshire. It is on the North Wales coast between Conwy and Llanfairfechan and was an ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, after killing four people at a hotel and setting it on fire.

Naval career

* Midshipman 1 January 1940 * Sub Lieutenant 1 November 1941 * Lieutenant 1 June 1943 * Lieutenant Commander 1 June 1951 (General List 1 January 1957) (retired 5 January 1959) *

10 July 1945 6 war patrols (3 East Indies, 3 Southwest Pacific) *

29 June 1951 Korea

Naval service

* Education: RN College (January 1936 – December 1939) * 1 January 1940 – January HMS ''Glasgow'' (cruiser) * January 1941 – May 1941 HMS ''Hero'' (destroyer) * May 1941 – July 1941 HMS ''Valiant'' (battleship) * July 1941? – September 1941? passage home SS ''Empress of Asia'' * September 1941 – March 1942 Sub-Lieutenant's courses * March 1942 – May 1942 submarine training course * 20 May 1942 – February 1943 HMS ''Tuna'' which was involved in

Operation Frankton Operation Frankton was a commando raid on ships in the German occupied French port of Bordeaux in southwest France during World War II. The raid was carried out by a small unit of Royal Marines known as the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachmen ...

* February 1943 – July 1943 HMS P556 (submarine) * 5 July 1943 – January 1946 First Lieutenant HMS ''Spiteful'' patrolling the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

sinking Japanese shipping. * 8 February 1946 – August 1946 HMS ''Dolphin'' a shore-establishment depot for submarines. Part of Submarine Reserve Group K. * August 1946 – September 1946 HMS ''Stygian'' (submarine) * October 1946 – November 1946 HMS ''Ranee'' (Woolworth carrier) * January 1947 – January 1948 specialist Torpedo & Anti-Submarine (TAS) course HMS ''Vernon'' * January 1948 – September 1949 HMS ''Defiance'' a torpedo school. * September 1949 – November 1949 passage to Far East SS ''Devonshire'' * November 1949 – April 1952? HMS ''Black Swan'' (sloop) which was involved in the

Yangtze Incident The ''Amethyst'' incident, also known as the Yangtze incident, was a historic event that occurred on the Yangtze River for three months in the summer of 1949, during the late phase of the Chinese Civil War. The incident involved the Commu ...

on 20 April 1949 (Korea; possibly POW) * 30 April 1952 – (May 1953) staff TAS, HMS ''Montclare'' a Submarine Depot Ship and based at Rothesay with the 3rd Submarine flotilla. * May 1953 – 5 July 1954

Commander-in-Chief, The Nore The Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, was an operational commander of the Royal Navy. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Nore Station or Nore Command. Nore, The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of t ...

* 5 July 1954 – (January 1956) staff, Flag Officer Commanding Reserve Fleet HMS ''Cleopatra'' * (1958) Underwater Weapons Material Department (Bath), Admiralty HMS ''President''

Family life

Commander Rutherford retired from the navy 5 January 1959. He was son of Neil Perry Rutherford and after his father's death, Neil ran A. Rutherford and Co, until 1960s. By April 1975, he was working as a gardener/handyman at the Red Gables Hotel, Penmaenmawr, North Wales. Rutherford was married on 7 August 1948 to Joan Margery Colville-Hyde; they divorced 2 May 1972.

Death

Rutherford killed four people at the Red Gables Hotel in

, Wales, on 24 September 1976, set fire to the hotel and then committed suicide. Killed by gunshot wounds were the hotel owner, Linda Simcox (52); Simcox's daughter, Lorna (24) and her husband, Alistair McIntyre (34); and a former merchant seaman who had become an antique dealer and resident of

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; , ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it List of municipalities in Louisiana, Louisiana's second-m ...

, Johnny Gore Green (55). The hotel was ablaze when the police arrived. An inquest a month later found that Rutherford had been the gardener and handyman at the hotel and concluded that the murders were made in a jealous rage after Rutherford's toward Linda Simcox who "did not reciprocate these feelings.""Jealous Commander killed four at hotel", ''The Guardian'' (London), 30 October 1976, p.20

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rutherford, Neil 1922 births 1976 deaths 1976 suicides British mass murderers British military personnel who died by suicide Family murders History of mental health in the United Kingdom Murder–suicides in the United Kingdom Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Navy officers of World War II Royal Navy personnel of the Korean War Royal Navy submarine commanders Suicides by firearm in Wales