Ernest John Spooner

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Rear-Admiral Ernest John Spooner, DSO, (1887 - 1942) was one of the senior Royal Navy officers at Singapore during the World War II Japanese invasion of Malaya and the subsequent fall of Singapore.

[edit] Early career

Spooner attended the West Downs School in Winchester beginning in the 1898 term. After completing his education at West Downs he joined the Royal Navy. He remained in the Navy following service in the First World War, and married noted soprano Megan Foster in 1926. At the time he held the rank of Commander.

When the Second World War broke out, Spooner had reached the rank of Rear-Admiral. In 1941 he was ordered to Singapore to succeeded Rear-Admiral Drew as Rear Admiral, Malaya. This position placed him in charge of naval operations in the waters surrounding Singapore.

[edit] The Malaya Campaign

When the Japanese launched their invasion of Malaya on December 8, 1941, Spooner initially had two immediate superiors: Admiral Sir Tom Philips (C-in-C Eastern Fleet) and Vice-Admiral Geoffrey Layton (Senior Naval Officer, Malaya). However, Admiral Philips was killed when his flagship HMS Prince of Wales was sunk along with HMS Repulse on December 10 by Japanese bombers. Then on January 5, 1942, Vice-Admiral Layton, who had replaced Phillips, moved his headquarters to the island of Java to streamline the organization of supply convoys to the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. This left Spooner as the senior naval officer in Singapore.

By the end of January, the Royal Navy had almost no real fighting strength left in Malaya, and the decision was taken to abandon Singapore in favor of Java. Most naval personnel were evacuated aboard the merchantman Empire Star on February 12, but Spooner and a few others remained behind to assist in organizing the evacuation of civilians from the island, which was now just days away from surrender. Spooner's wife was one of those who was evacuated.

The evacuations were a dismal affair due to circumstances beyond Spooner's control. The situation had become so dire that anything more than rudimentary coordination was impossible. Furthermore, Japanese naval and air forces operating in the seas around Malaya destroyed many of the ships that left Singapore in the final days before the surrender on February 15. One of the unfortunate vessels caught up in the attempted escapes was the motor launch transporting Spooner, Air Vice-Marshal Conway Pulford and some 40 others. The vessel was attacked by Japanese aircraft and its passengers became stranded on a small island called Chibia (Tjibia, Tjebia). Chibia was part of the Juju group located north of Bangka Island, and was uninhabited. Even worse, there was almost no fresh water. Despite British search efforts, the stranded refugees remained on the island for two months before disease and starvation forced the survivors to surrender to the Japanese. By that time, both Spooner and Pulford had died of exhaustion and malaria.