Peter L. N. Padfield (3 April 1932 – 14 March 2022) was a British author, biographer, historian, and journalist who specialised in

naval history Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. The Military, armed forces branch designated for naval warfare is a navy. Naval operations can be ...

and 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 ...

period. His early journalism appeared under the name P. L. N. Padfield. As well as his non-fiction work, he also published four novels.

Life and work

Born on 3 April 1932 in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

, in the

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, Padfield attended a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

for boys,

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter, located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. T ...

, then trained for a naval career as a

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...

cadet on HMS ''Worcester''. He then became a navigating officer with the P&O shipping company. In 1957 he was paid off from P&O's London to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

''Strathmore'', after being accepted as one of the crew of '' Mayflower II'', a replica of the original ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, reac ...

'', and sailed in her on her maiden voyage from

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. On leaving a junior officer's life with P&O, Padfield later commented that "Cargo boats, public schools, and prisons have a great deal in common". After New York, he returned to sea in the Pacific, including a visit to

Guadalcanal Guadalcanal (; indigenous name: ''Isatabu'') is the principal island in Guadalcanal Province of Solomon Islands, located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia. It is the largest island in the Solomons by area and the second- ...

in the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

, where he panned for gold, then wrote ''The Sea is a Magic Carpet'', published as a book in 1959, an account of his adventures.Peter Padfield biography
at andrewlownie.co.uk, accessed 18 October 2015 Padfield settled in England and established a career in journalism. In his second book, ''The Titanic and the Californian'', he defended the reputation of Captain Lord, the master of the '' Californian'' who since 1912 had been widely blamed for the death of hundreds of passengers on the ''Titanic''. He concluded that in the Board of Trade Inquiry chaired by

Lord Mersey John Charles Bigham, 1st Viscount Mersey, (3 August 1840 – 3 September 1929) was a British jurist and politician. After early success as a lawyer and a less successful spell as a politician, he was appointed a judge and worked in commercial l ...

there had been "crazy deductions, distortions, prejudice, and occasional bone-headed obstinacy of witnesses and the court", and the huge success of this enabled him to begin writing books full-time. Next came several works on naval history, including ''The Great Naval Race'' (1976), a study of the rivalry between Britain and Germany in the early 20th century, which led to biographies of three leading Nazis,

Karl Dönitz Karl Dönitz (; 16 September 1891 – 24 December 1980) was a German grand admiral and convicted war criminal who, following Adolf Hitler's Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide, succeeded him as head of state of Nazi Germany during the Second World ...

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and military leader who was the 4th of the (Protection Squadron; SS), a leading member of the Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful p ...

, and

Rudolf Hess Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician, Nuremberg trials, convicted war criminal and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer ( ...

. In 2003 he won the Mountbatten Maritime Prize for his ''Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom''.PETER PADFIELD Naval Historian and Biographer
at guypadfield.com, accessed 18 October 2015 Padfield's most recent historical work was ''Hess, Hitler and Churchill'' (2013), in which he explores the mystery of

's flight to Britain in 1941. He developed the theory that it may have been part of a significant German peace offer and suggested that Hess was carrying documents with detailed proposals from

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. These would have meant an armistice between Germany and Britain, which would stand neutral in a planned German war against the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, in return for which Germany was willing to withdraw its armed forces from Western Europe. However, this theory "is not new", and has been disputed by other historians. According to

Ian Kershaw Sir Ian Kershaw (born 29 April 1943) is an English historian whose work has chiefly focused on the social history of 20th-century Germany. He is regarded by many as one of the world's foremost experts on Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, and is ...

, "Hess acted without Hitler's knowledge, but in the deep (if confused) belief that he was carrying out his wishes", and states that all those "who saw Hitler t that timeregistered his profound shock, dismay and anger at what he saw as betrayal."

Personal life

In 1960 Padfield gave up his life at sea and married Jane Yarwood. They settled first at

Clare, Suffolk Clare is a market town and civil parish on the north bank of the River River Stour, Suffolk, Stour in the West Suffolk District, West Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. Clare is in southwest Suffolk, from Bury St Edmunds and ...

, and brought up a son and two daughters in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area of the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, ...

, buying a gaff-rigged Norfolk shrimp boat for sailing on the River Deben. He lived in Woodbridge. Taking many holidays in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, until the arrival of old age the couple's interests included cross-country skiing in the winter months, and they continued with mountain walks in the summer. Padfield also sketched and painted in watercolours. He died on 14 March 2022, at the age of 89.

Works

Autobiographical *''The Sea is a Magic Carpet'' (Peter Davies, 1959) Naval history *''The Titanic and the Californian'' (1965, new edition by Thistle Publishing, 2015) *''An Agony of Collisions'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1966) *''Aim Straight: a biography of Admiral Sir Percy Scott'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1968) *''Broke and the Shannon: a biography of Admiral Sir Peter Broke'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1969) *''Guns at Sea'' (Hugh Evelyn, 1972) *''The Battleship Era'' (Hart-Davis, 1973), later re-issued as ''Battleship'' (Birlinn, 2000) *''Nelson's War'' (Hart-Davis, 1975), with introduction by Ludovic Kennedy *''The Great Naval Race: Anglo-German Naval Rivalry, 1900–1914'' (Hart-Davis,1976) *''Tide of Empires: Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West 1481–1654'' (Routledge, 1979) *''Rule Britannia: the Victorian and Edwardian Navy'' (Routledge, 1981) *''Beneath the Houseflag of the P & O: a social history'' (Hutchinson, 1981) *''Tide of Empires: Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West 1654–1763'' (Routledge, 1981) *''Armada: a Celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the Defeat of the Spanish Armada'' (Gollancz, 1988) *''War Beneath the Sea: Submarine Conflict, 1939–1945'' (John Murray, 1995) *''Maritime Supremacy and the Opening of the Western Mind: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World, 1588–1782'' (John Murray, 1999) *''Maritime Power and the Struggle for Freedom: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World, 1788–1851'' (John Murray, 2003) Mountbatten Maritime Prize 2003 *''Maritime Dominion and the Triumph of the Free World: Naval Campaigns that Shaped the Modern World, 1852–2001'' (John Murray, 2009) Second World War *''Dönitz: the Last Führer'' (Gollancz, 1984) *''Himmler: Reichsführer-SS'' (Macmillan, 1990) *''Hess: Flight for the Führer'' (Weidenfeld, 1991) *''Hess: the Führer's Disciple'' (Macmillan Papermac, 1993) *''War Beneath the Sea: Submarine Conflict, 1939–1945'' (John Murray, 1995) *''Hess, Hitler and Churchill: the real turning point of the Second World War'' (Icon Books, 2013) **U.S. edition ''Night Flight to Dungavel: Rudolf Hess, Winston Churchill, and the real turning point of WWII'' (ForeEdge from University Press of New England, 2014) Novels *''The Lion's Claw'' (1978) *''The Unquiet Gods'' (1980) *''Gold Chains of Empire'' (1982) *''Salt and Steel'' (1986) Selected articles *'Mystery of the Melanesian' in ''The Wide World Magazine'', December 1959 *'We Sailed on All Fools' Day' in ''The Wide World Magazine'', January 1960

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Padfield, Peter 1932 births 2022 deaths British naval historians People educated at Christ's Hospital P&O People from Clare, Suffolk Royal Naval Reserve personnel British Merchant Navy officers British journalists 20th-century Royal Navy personnel Military personnel from Kolkata