The life and times of ‘Orkney’s own Admiral’
The life of “Orkney’s own Admiral” has been told in a biography charting the career of the former First Sea Lord, Sir Jock Slater.
A man with many Orkney connections, the retired senior officer lives in his family home in Hampshire.
His story has been detailed by Captain Peter Hore, in his book No Uncertain Sound: The Life and Times of Admiral Sir Jock Slater.
Although Sir Jock was born in Edinburgh, his father, Dr James Slater, was an Orcadian and his mother, Mrs Billie Slater, later lived in Finstown for many years. His wife Ann, nee Scott, is also from Orkney, and her father Pat was managing director of Highland Park Distillery.
Sir Jock’s early Royal Navy career included service in the Royal Yacht Britannia, and he became equerry to the Queen from 1968-71, when he was promoted to commander and took command of the frigate HMS Jupiter.
He later commanded the guided missile destroyer HMS Kent before becoming the first captain of the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, which went to the South Atlantic at the end of the Falklands campaign in 1982.
In 1983 he brought Illustrious into Scapa Flow, the fourth ship under his command to come into the Flow in 15 years.
He was later flag officer for Scotland and Northern Ireland, and then became knighted to become Sir Jock in 1988.
Promoted to Admiral in 1991, he soon rose to the highest rank in the Royal Navy, becoming First Sea Lord in 1995.
Retiring from the Royal Navy in 1998, Sir Jock’s maritime career did not end there, as he became chairman of the RNLI.
He was also Prime Warden of the Shipwrights’ Company, Elder Brother of Trinity House, and chairman of the Imperial War Museum.
The author of the new book, Captain Hore, first met his subject back in 1972, when the younger officer was on board HMS Jupiter, and Sir Jock arrived to take over command.
The author added: “I did not know then that 50 years later I would be writing his biography, but I followed Jock’s meteoric career — if somewhat in the rear and more junior! — over the years, until in the 1990s he was the First Sea Lord and I, as head of defence studies for the Navy, reported to him.”
After Captain Hore left the navy, he took up writing as a full-time career and, in 2002, he became a freelance obituarist at The Daily Telegraph.
He’s written several books, including two biographies, though the story of Sir Jock, who is now 88, has been the first time he has written about a living subject.
“I wanted the book to be not just about Jock’s successful career, but about his life and times and about the Navy in the late 20th century,” Captain Hore continued.
“Many events I’d witnessed myself. I read around the subject, I interviewed over 100 people, from Malcolm Rifkind downwards, and Jock submitted himself to hours of my impertinent questions over a series of fireside chats.
“It was a sweet moment to undertake this research, when papers have not yet reached the archives — and might not do so except in heavily edited forms — while many of the participants were alive, still have their memories but had lost any fear of the Official Secrets Act.
“Jock’s biography is therefore a unique take on the history of his times, a history which could only be written once, and which I am happy to note has been well received.”
No Uncertain Sound can be ordered from The Orcadian Bookshop, in hardback, for £24.99.