GOULD, Thomas W (#94)

The crew of the HM Submarine Thrasher (N37 a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy), captained by Lieutenant H. S. McKenzie came ashore to a heroic welcome in Dover in 1944. Thrasher had been commissioned for service in 1941 and by 1944 she had torpedoed 11 merchant vessels, 4 supply ships and a tug totalling 40,000 tons. Among her crew were two VCs, one DSO, two DSCs, six DSMs and 13 mentions in despatches. (lossow.vamp, Flickr)

At about midday on February 16, Thrasher, on patrol off Suva Bay, on the north coast of Crete, torpedoed and sank an Axis supply ship of some 3,000 tons, escorted by five anti-submarine vessels.

The escorts counter-attacked, with support from aircraft, and dropped 33 depth-charges, some of them very close indeed. Thrasher survived the attacks and, that evening after dark, surfaced to recharge batteries.

Emblem of the Thrasher, from the submarine’s Wikipedia entry

In the early hours of the morning, when Thrasher altered course across the swell and began to roll heavily, banging noises were heard from above, as though some heavy object were loose and rolling about. It was found that there was a bomb, probably weighing about 100lb, lying on the submarine’s casing in front of the four-inch gun mounting.

Lieutenant Peter Roberts, the First Lieutenant, and Petty Officer Gould volunteered to go on deck and remove the bomb. As Second Coxswain, Gould was in charge of the stowage of gear inside the casing (a light metal free-flooding structure, erected on top of the submarine’s pressure hull).

Lieutenant Peter S.W. Roberts, VC, DSC

There was some two or three feet clearance between the casing and the hull, enclosing a tangle of pipes, wires and other gear. At any moment the bomb might roll off the casing on to the saddle tank below and detonate. While Gould held the bomb still, Roberts put an old potato sack round the bomb and tied it with a length of rope.

The bomb was too heavy to be thrown clear of the saddle tanks, so they manhandled it 100 ft forward to the bows and dropped it overboard, while Thrasher went full astern to get clear.

A – where bomb penetrated the gun platform. A1 – the position where the bomb was discovered inside the casing. B – Position where 2nd unexploded bomb was discovered lying on the casing, bomb represented by the tin can. C – Petty Officer Gould, VC, standing in the casing-hatch through which bomb from A1 was dragged. Note: THRASHER was at periscope depth, 34 feet, and going deep when the bombs struc… Copyright: © IWM A 8711

Looking more closely at the casing, they found a jagged hole and inside, another bomb, resting on the pressure hull. It was not possible to handle the bomb up through the hole it had made. The only way was through a hinged metal grating about 20 ft away.

The two men lowered themselves through the opening and wriggled on their stomachs to where the bomb lay. If it exploded, the submarine would be lost. Furthermore, Thrasher was off an enemy coast, and the enemy knew there was an Allied submarine in the area. If a surface vessel or aircraft were sighted, Thrasher’s CO, Lt (later Vice Admiral Sir Hugh “Rufus”) Mackenzie, would have to dive, and the two men would be drowned.

Gould lay flat on his back with the bomb in his arms. Roberts lay in front of him, dragging him by the shoulders as he crawled along. By the faint light of a shaded torch, the two of them worked the bomb through the narrow casing, easing it up through the grating. The bomb made a disconcerting twanging noise whenever it was moved and it was 40 minutes before the two men had it clear and could wrap it in the sack, carry it forward and drop it over the bows.

“I never expected to get the VC,” Gould said. “When we came down from the casing that night, we were soaking wet.” All the Captain said was: `You’d better get yourselves dried’.”

Mackenzie did not make much of the “bombs incident” in his patrol report, merely commending Roberts and Gould for their “excellent conduct”. The incident was virtually forgotten until several months later, when, as Mackenzie recalled, he was “shaken by the news that Roberts and Gould had each been awarded the Victoria. A great personal honour to themselves and, as they and I felt, also to their fellow submariners.”

The VCs were awarded on the recommendation of the C-in-C Mediterranean, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, but were opposed by the Honours and Awards Committee in London, which argued that the acts of bravery had not been performed in the presence of the enemy, as VC Warrants stipulated, and that the George Cross would be more appropriate. Cunningham, however, retorted that two large enemy bombs, in a submarine off an enemy coastline, constituted quite enough enemy presence.

Thomas William Gould was born at Dover on December 28 1914. His father, Reuben Gould, was killed in action in 1916. His mother married a second time, to Petty Officer Cheeseman.

From St James’s School, Dover, Gould joined the Navy on September 29 1933, and served in the cruisers Emerald and Columbo.

Thomas Gould, his wife and their son

He joined submarines in 1937 and served in Regent, Pandora and Regulus. He was rated Acting Petty Officer on August 17 1940. Later in the war, he was mentioned in dispatches after the submarine Truculent sank U-308 off the Faroes on June 4 1943.

As a VC hero, Gould was interviewed by the Marquess of Donegal, who asked him what he was thinking while busy with those bombs. “I was hoping the bloody things would not go off,” Gould replied.

On January 13 1943, Gould was made an Honorary Freeman of Dover; and in March, after his Investiture at Buckingham Palace, he went home to St Albans, where he then lived, to a civic reception by the Mayor and Corporation.

After being invalided from the Navy in October 1945, Gould became a business consultant and was for some years chief personnel manager with Great Universal Stores. He kept up his interest in the Navy and the Jewish community, taking part in Jewish ex-Servicemen’s marches.

Thomas Gould VC (VC online)

In July 1946 he was in the front of a march through London to protest against the government’s policy towards Palestine. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant RNR and commanded the Sea Cadet Corps at Bromley in Kent, where he was then living.

In May 1965, Gould’s name was in the papers again, this time as “a VC on the dole”. He had lost his job as personnel manager, because of “a clash of personalities”, and remarked that he was finding his VC a liability: “Incredible though it may seem, people in top management seem to shy away from me. I think it might be because they are afraid that a man with such a record could show too much embarrassing initiative. If it is the VC which is frightening people away from me, I wish they would forget it. Those days are over.”

Gould’s VC was sold at Sotheby’s for £44,000 in October 1987 and is held by the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen.

For several years Gould was President of the International Submarine Association of Great Britain and was an active member of his local Royal Naval Association and of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association. He was also an active Freemason.

Gould was a quiet, conscientious man of great personal presence. Meticulous in his habits, he was always smartly dressed and in later life grew a luxuriant naval beard and moustache.

He married, in 1941, Phyllis Eldridge, who died in 1985. They had a son. (Obituary courtesy of the Daily Telegraph)

British Medals of Thomas Gould, Jewish Museum of London, 2017.