Geoffrey Sladen
1904–1985Royal Navy officer who invented the Sladen Suit drysuit for manned torpedo riders and commanded HMS Trident, torpedoing the Prinz Eugen in 1942.
Particulars
Geoffrey Sladen invented the Sladen Suit, a drysuit used by British manned torpedo riders, after a career that took him from the rugby field to the command of a wartime submarine. Born in Reigate, he trained at the Royal Naval College in Osborne and Dartmouth, and played rugby for the navy before earning three caps for England as a centre in the 1929 Five Nations.
During World War II, Sladen commanded HMS Trident. In 1940 he received the Distinguished Service Cross for demonstrating 'courage, enterprise and resource'. In 1942, his submarine torpedoed the German cruiser Prinz Eugen off the Norwegian coast, forcing the ship to be towed back to Germany for repairs; for this action he was awarded a bar to his DSC. It was later revealed that HMS Trident had carried a reindeer on board for several weeks, a gift from the Soviets being transported to London Zoo.
Sladen died in 1985 in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, at the age of 81.
Compiled from Wikipedia. Automated record.