Naval Officer and SIS agent. Died aged 87.
James Alfred Tennyson was a great-grandson of the Victorian poet laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and descended from a long line of Scottish aristocracy, going back to Robert the Bruce.
After more than 30 years as a British Navy officer, including extensive service in
the Second World War, he retired with the rank of lieutenant commander in 1958, and moved to New Zealand soon after.
He joined the Security Intelligence Service during the Cold War. One of his assignments involved the surveillance and apprehension of the retired Secretary of Industries and Commerce, Bill Sutch.
Tennyson retired from the SIS in 1974.
He entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth when he was 13.
He was a navigation officer during the war, taking part in the Norwegian Campaign, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Russian convoys, the North African landings, the Sicilian and Italian campaigns, the Normandy landings and the war against the Japanese in the Pacific.
He survived being torpedoed, bombed, mined and attacked by kamikaze pilots. He was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the Norwegian campaign.
In 1985, at the age of 71, Tennyson accepted from Russia a medal commemorating his involvement in protecting the Russian convoys in 1944.
Throughout his years in New Zealand, he maintained his Tennysonian interests through the English Tennyson Society and the Tennyson research centre in England.
He is survived by his wife and two sons.
- NZPA
