Sir Ronald Swayne MC

[Photo: British Box Business - The History of OCL]

In recent weeks we've had two references to the former OCL chairman, Sir Ronald Swayne and his Second World War military service. The first was by SCARA member Ian Thomson who pointed us towards the oral history archive held by the UK's Imperial War Museum. Amongst their publicly accessible recordings are an interview with Sir Ronald dating back to 1988 (please see the links to the right and below).

The second reference came in this year's SCARA Annual Reunion Lunch. Alan Bott OBE, former company director and editor of British Box Business - The History of OCL, had been due to be the guest speaker but unfortunately had had to pull out at the last minute. SCARA chairman David Cross read out a message on Alan's behalf which included a mention of two incidents related to the company history where people's paths crossed many years after their first meeting. One of those incidents involved Sir Ronald.

IWM website: Interview with Ronald Oliver Carless Swayne

Sir Ronald Swayne OBE was an OCL director from 1965 to 1982. Known in the company as 'Ronnie Swayne' or 'ROCS', he served as OCL chairman from 1973-1982, a very significant period for the global growth of container shipping.

In 1977 Sir Ronald attended the launching of the Resolution Bay at the Bremer Vulcan yard in Bremen. At the dinner that followed the yard's managing director, Hans Huchzermeir, revealed that this was not their first meeting. He had been a German naval officer involved with the OCL chairman's capture after the Allied raid on the St Nazaire dockyard in March 1942!

[Image and text from page 162 British Box Business - The History of OCL]

Ronald Oliver Carless Swayne was born in New Romney in Kent on 11 May 1918. His father was Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Oswald Swayne and Brenda Swayne (née Butler). The 1921 Census record for the Swayne family shows that in June of that year they were living in Bromley with his father holding the position of Adjutant for the Royal Garrison Artillery.

Ronald Swayne enlisted in the British Army in August 1939. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry (Herefordshire Regiment), serving with No 11 Independent Company and then with the No.1 Commando unit.

The Commandos were set up by the order of Winston Churchill who had called for specially trained troops to "develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast". No.1 Commando Unit was raised in June 1940, and by March 1941 was stationed at Dartmouth in Devon. They participated in Operation Chopper, a raid on Saint-Aubin-d'Arquenay on the French coast on the night of 27-28/08/1941. In April 1942 they took part in Operation Myrmidion, an aborted raid on the Adour estuary which would have seen 3,000 men put ashore near Bayonne with the aim of disrupting Nazi road and rail transport close to the border between France and Spain.

In January 1941 Ronald married Charmian Cairnes who was from Herefordshire. The guard of honour for their wedding was provided by Indian soldiers from a Red Cross auxiliary hospital that was commanded by the bride's mother.

No.1 Commando unit supplied a troop for Operation Chariot, the St. Nazaire raid, an attack on the heavily defended docks of St. Nazaire in France on the night of 28 March 1942. This raid's primary objective was to disable the port's dry dock facilities so they could not be used by the Kriegsmarine for repairs to major surface vessels such as the Bismark and Tirpitz. Lieutenant Swayne was a member of the No.1 Commando party (designated for the raid as No.2 Commando), and his troop's target was a power and pumping station near the south lock, the primary access point for U-boats on passage from the Loire to their concrete shelters in the Bassin de Saint-Nazaire ('Target Group X'). He was captured during the raid when his motor launch was engaged by a German navy destroyer. He was held as a prisoner of war in Oflag IX-A/H (9A/H), a camp in Spangenberg, about 15 miles south east of the city of Kassel in Germany. He and the other Allied prisoners in the camp were freed on 3 May 1945.

At the end of the Second World War, Lieutenant Swayne was recommended for the award of the Military Cross. That recommendation, dated 11/06/1944, reads:

On 28 March, 1942, during the Commando Raid at ST. NAZAIRE, France.

Lieut. Swayne was in command of a Demolition party on board a Motor Launch. Owing to the intense fire from the land, it was impossible for this Motor Launch to land the military personnel, and the Naval Commander, after making several attempts, proceeded to withdraw from the River Loire. When they had proceeded some distance, they were engaged at very close range, by a German Torpedo Boat.

Lieut. Swayne had manned all the light automatics under his command, and controlled continuous fire on the enemy vessel. A request to surrender made by the German Naval Commander was totally disregarded, and in spite of intense fire from the enemy Torpedo Boat during which may were killed and wounded, the Motor Launch continued to engaged [SIC] the enemy.

After the majority of the naval personnel had been either killed or wounded, Lieut. Swayne still kept his men fighting, even up to the point when the Torpedo Boat attempted to ram the Motor Launch.

It was only when all effective fire power on board the launch had been wiped out, that with a handful of men still alive, Lieut. Swayne was forced to surrender to the German vessel.

His leadership and his personal disregard for danger was a fine example to those men on board who manned the light automatics in face of far heavier fire power.

R. E. Laycock

Major General, Chief of Combined Operations

The London Gazette entry for the award of the Military Cross was dated 5 July 1945.

Post-war, Ronald Swayne joined the Blue Funnel shipping company. He rose through the management ranks at the Ocean Steam Ship Company under their 'crown prince' system. By 1965 he was Blue Funnel's Australian trade director, and in that capacity he was involved in the early negotiations with P&O, British & Commonwealth and Furness Withy that led to the establishment of Overseas Containers Limited (OCL) on 27 August that year. He was one of the original OCL directors.

The first OCL chairman was P&O's Sir Andrew Crichton. Ronald Swayne took over from him in March 1973. His knighthood was conferred on 26 June 1979. Sir Ronald Swayne held a number of positions outside of Ocean and OCL, including becoming Chairman of the Cook Society (British-Australia Society) in 1981. He remained as the OCL chairman until Sir Kerry St Johnston took over the reins in August 1982.

In 1989, in recognition of his wartime service, Sir Ronald Swayne was appointed Vice President of the Commando Association.

Sir Ronald Oliver Carless Swayne MC, an incredible man who lived in incredible times, passed away at the age of 73 on 29 October 1991.