Ships
- HMS Emerald (D66) Captain from 9 March 1945 · Relieved in late 1945
Wilfrid Pearse Gandell had Emerald from 9 March 1945 into late 1945, after she had already been paid off into reserve at Rosyth. Uboat.net spells his first name Wilfred. Unithistories.com spells it Wilfrid, and that spelling is used here.
Unithistories says he was the son of Thomas Pearse Gandell, chairman of the Oxford and Cambridge Club, who died in 1926. He married Lilian Amabel Marion Campbell on 12 April 1923. She was the daughter of Major-General Maxwell Campbell, Royal Engineers, and she died in 1982. They had one daughter and one son, who died before the entry was compiled. He was born on 1 November 1886. The page prints the birthplace as "Baywater W." He died on 9 June 1986 at Slinfold, Horsham, West Sussex.
He was educated at Stoke House and in Britannia, and he entered the Royal Navy on 15 May 1901. Unithistories lists midshipman on 15 July 1902, sub-lieutenant on 15 November 1905, lieutenant on 15 May 1906, lieutenant-commander on 15 May 1914, and commander on 30 June 1919. He retired on 8 April 1929 and was promoted captain on the retired list on 1 November 1931. Uboat.net's rank table matches the captain's date and gives the retirement as 8 April 1929, with an earlier retired date of the same day against the commander's rank. Appointments on the unithistories page include torpedo duties in Zealandia, St Vincent and Vernon between 1912 and 1917, wireless and war-staff duties in Victory from December 1917 to September 1920, the staff course at Greenwich, and Emperor of India from 11 August 1924 to 11 August 1926. He held the Royal Humane Society's bronze life-saving medal from 10 May 1918 and an Italian commemorative medal of 1908. The page prints "Eartquake" for the southern Italian earthquake of December 1908.
He was recalled as a commodore, 2nd class, on 4 September 1939. From that day until 28 September 1940 he was Principal Sea Transport Officer, French Ports, including the Dunkirk evacuation. He was appointed CBE on 4 October 1940 for directing Sea Transport. In 1941 he was Principal Sea Transport Officer on the Clyde, then chief staff officer to the Flag Officer-in-Charge at Yarmouth, and from 17 May 1941 until 15 September 1944 chief staff officer to the Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth. The page records a United States Legion of Merit for that Plymouth service, a mention for operations in the field from March to June 1940, and a Legion of Merit dated 28 May 1946 whose citation the page leaves as a question mark. It also associates a 1944 mention with Operation Neptune.
Uboat.net gives him Emerald from 9 March 1945 to late 1945, as a retired captain. Unithistories gives the same start and an open end in October 1945, and it says a Who's Who entry calls him Senior Officer, Reserve Fleet, Forth Area, 1944–1946. Mason's chronology has her as Senior Officer's Ship of the Reserve Fleet at Rosyth from March 1945. A line on the unithistories page says Enterprise in January 1945 is "indexed, but not listed as such." That line is not used as a command.
He reverted to the retired list in April 1946. Unithistories records him on West Sussex County Council from 1958 to 1964, on Horsham Rural District Council from 1952 to 1964, and as assistant chief warden for civil defence in the Horsham area from 1952 to 1965. He died on 9 June 1986 at Slinfold.