David Hart Dyke

He served aboard the Ton-class minesweeper Lanton during the Indonesian Confrontation in 1963, then as navigating officer aboard the frigates Palliser on fishery protection duties in 1963–1965, Gurkha in the Persian Gulf, 1965–1966, and Tenby in the Dartmouth Training Squadron, 1966–1968, before being appointed an instructor at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth,[2] where he was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 January 1970.

[5] He attended a year-long staff course[2] before being promoted to commander on 30 June 1974[6] and appointed first lieutenant and executive officer of the guided missile destroyer Hampshire.

[9] On 31 December 1980 Hart Dyke was promoted to captain,[10] and appointed to command of the Type 42 destroyer Coventry, seeing active service during the Falklands War.

[11] On 25 May 1982 Coventry was stationed north-west of Falkland Sound with Broadsword, providing radar cover for the ground troops in San Carlos Water, when she was attacked by four Argentine A-4 Skyhawks.

[13] On 1 January 1990 Hart Dyke was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE),[14] and retired from the Royal Navy a week later on the 7th.

[20][21] A film, Destroyer, based on Hart Dyke's book, to be directed by Tom Shankland and starring Paul Bettany and Matthew Goode was announced in 2012.