As the first lieutenant on HMS Vidal, my father, Desmond Scott, who has died aged 92, was winched from a helicopter on to Rockall on 21 September 1955. There he hoisted the union jack on what is a barren shoulder of rock in the middle of the Atlantic, 300 miles west of Scotland, claiming it for Queen and country. Ever since, whenever Rockall is into the news again, there is a small flurry of interest and the papers print a blurry black and white photo of the event and Desmond’s 15 minutes of fame.
His more substantial achievements came as the secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), an autonomous body within Unesco dedicated to marine science. It was a job to which he was appointed on his retirement from the Royal Navy in 1973 and it catapulted him from the relative obscurity of the oceanographic branch of the Surveying Service to the life of an international civil servant based in Paris. It was an inspired appointment.
Desmond’s lack of scientific qualifications and his distaste for personal aggrandisement made him the ideal man for the job. He had a gift for bringing together scientists from all round the world to collaborate on research into the way in which the oceans work, a branch of science which was becoming increasingly important as the world began to appreciate the impact of global warming. That he was also the kind of man who, once he had started something, would not rest until it was finished, helped him build IOC into an effective and respected international organisation, able to transcend the rivalries of the cold war.
In 2010, he was delighted to be awarded an honorary doctorate from the Praesidium of the Russian Academy of Science, an honour celebrated as much by his friends in the US as elsewhere.
Desmond was the son Gwen (nee Cole) and George. He attended Eastbourne college and in school holidays shared his home in East Sussex with the children of colonial civil servants whom his parents had taken in to help make ends meet.
In 1944, he met Mary Quarry on a troop ship bound for Malta – at the time she was serving as a Wren. They were married in 1948.
After Desmond retired from the IOC in 1979, he continued working well into his 70s, on the General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans, an ocean-mapping project that drew not only on his experience at the IOC, but also on his early life as a surveyor in the Royal Navy hydrographic service.
He and Mary retired to Chichester, West Sussex, in 1979. Together they founded an amateur dramatic society, Focus on Drama, kept bees, campaigned for environmental causes and made many friends.
Mary died in 2010. Desmond is survived by me and my brother, David, three grandchildren, Sarah, Ben and Abigail, and five great-grandchildren
