Cherry, John Conrad Hazlehurst, son of Edward Hazlehurst Cherry and Macie Gwladys, d. of Samuel Smiley of Nazeing, Essex; b. 7 Sept. 1914; adm. Sept. 1927 (H); left July 1933; BNC Oxf., matric. 1933, BA 1938; rowed against Cambridge 1936-8, pres. OUBC 1937-8; Leander crew in the Berlin Olympic Games 1936; RNVR 1939-43 (Lieut.), despatches (posth.) June 1943; m. 22 Nov. 1940 Glory, d. of George Rowe; lost in HM Minelayer Welshman (Med.) 1 Feb. 1943.
John Conrad Hazlehurst “Con” Cherry was born at Paddington, London on the 7th of September 1914 the son of Edward Hazlehurst Cherry MBE , Deputy Manager of the Navy, Army and Air Forces Institutes, and Macie Gwladys (nee Smiley) Cherry of 261, Lauderdale Mansions, Maida Vale, later of “Harbourside”, Bruenell Road, Parkstone in Dorset. He was christened at St Stephen’s Church, Rochester Row on the 3rd of January 1915.
He was educated at Westminster School where he was up Homeboarders from September 1927 to July 1933. He was appointed as a member of the Monitorial Council in September 1931 and was appointed as a School Monitor and as Head of Homeboarders in September 1932. He was a member of the Officer Training Corps and was promoted to Lance Sergeant in September 1931. He was a member of the 3rd Rowing VIII in 1929, where he rowed at No. 3 and of the 1st Rowing VIII from 1930 to 1933 where he rowed at No. 7 and later at No. 5.
The Elizabethan wrote the following of his 1930 season: - “A good seven, who is steadily improving as he puts on weight. With a fine natural length, he works smoothly and he can row hard. Apart from some unnecessary movement in his shoulders and head coming forward, he form and effectiveness is excellent. Like all oarsmen, he must go on working for more ease and quickness at the beginning.” They wrote of his 1931 season: - “He was hindered at first by an appearance of a new fault at the beginning of the season, of a hunching and poking action, with the inside arm bent. But towards the end of the season he opened out well, and developed much better length. At 7 he is an excellent timekeeper, but he needs to develop a longer and more powerful leg drive.”
He was appointed as Head of the Water in 1932. The Elizabethan wrote of his 1932 season: - “One of the “grand old men” of the crew, whose rowing is almost without blemish. For this reason he will have to work hard next year to maintain his present very high standard.” At the end of the 1933 season they wrote: - “A tower of strength to the boat; he kept the swing of the crew going, and his puddles showed how he was helping the boat along. Improvement for him lies, first in avoiding bent arms; this will give him the full advantage of his reach; secondly, in coupling up the whole body with his drive straight through from the stretcher to the finish. If he gets this, he will be a great oarsman. He has been an exceptionally able Head of the Water. He has done work and left a standard which will live after him.”
He matriculated for Brasenose College, Oxford in 1933 which he entered on the Heath Harrison Minor Exhibition. He was the President of the Brasenose Junior Common Rom and was a member of the Phoenix Common Room. He rowed for the College VIII from 1934 to 1938 and for the Oxford University VIII from 1936 to 1938. He was President of the Oxford University Boat Club in 1937 and 1938. He rowed for the Great Britain Rowing VIII in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games in which they finished in fourth place. He served as the Captain of the Leander Club from 1938 to 1943 and was a member of Vincent’s Club.
He was a member of the Entertainments Committee of the Elizabethan Club in 1937.
On the outbreak of war he was an administrative trainee with an aircraft manufacturer. He was married on the 22nd of September 1940 to Iris Glory (nee Rowe) of Deancroft House, Cookham Dean, Berkshire; they had a daughter, Susan, born in 1942.
He was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve on the 10th of November 1940 and served as Torpedo Officer at the Royal Naval shore establishment HMS Spartiate from the 3rd of January to the 31st of March 1941. He served on board the minelayer HMS Manxman (M70) from the 1st of March 1941 to the 29th of December 1942.
He joined the crew of the cruiser- minelayer HMS Welshman (M84) on the 30th of December 1942, which had served in the Mediterranean from May 1942 where she took part in Operation Harpoon, Operation Pedestal and Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942.
At 5.45pm on the 1st of February 1943, HMS Welshman, under the command of Captain William Howard Dennis Friedberger DSO RN, was transporting stores and personnel from Malta to Tobruk when she was struck by two torpedoes from of a spread of four which had been fired by the U Boat U-617, under the command of Kapitänleutnant Albrecht Brandt. The main deck area flooded and she capsized and sank two hours later with the loss of 152 of her crew and 13 passengers. Several of the casualties were cause by exploding depth charges as she sank. 118 survivors were picked up after five hours in the water by the destroyers HMS Tetcott and HMS Belvoir and were taken to Alexandria. A further 6 survivors were rescued by small craft which had sailed out from Tobruk.
His wife received the following telegram: - “From Admiralty. Deeply regret to inform you that your husband Lieutenant J.C. Cherry RNVR has been killed on active service.”
He was Mentioned in Despatches “For courage and skill and enterprise”, which was announced by the Admiralty on the 1st of June 1943.
His obituary in the Times newspaper reads; - “..... Here was a No. 7 of unusual merit. The next year he at seven and Sturrock at six were the backbone of the first winning Oxford crew in 14 years, and in 1938, as President, he was the keystone of another winning crew. Cherry rowed at 14 stones. He was one of the best heavyweight oarsmen of all time, but he will be even better remembered for his absolutely faultless style, so rare in a big man. Rowing at No. 7 he could give a crew the quality that usually needs a stylish No. 7 and a thrusting No. 5, and those who saw him row realise what the orthodox style could be at its best. His easy style of rowing, so deceptive of its power, was seen to even greater advantage in a four than an eight, and in 1937 he rowed No. 3 in the fine Leander four that won the Steward’s Cup at Henley.”
The Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford, Dr. W. T. S. Stallybrass, wrote: - “There have been, I believe, more O.WW. at Brasenose than at any other Oxford College (Christ Church always excepted), but none of them can have stood out amongst his contemporaries more than Conrad Cherry. He was far more mature than the normal Freshman. Like so many O.WW. He was possessed of an easy self-confidence and plenty of savoir faire, and he was quite exceptionally business-like. His capacity for business was recognised when he was elected President of the J.C.R. But it is as an oarsman that Cherry's name will always be remembered. As a Freshman his style was so good that some thought that he did little work in the boat. But the same men in the end considered him the best Seven there has ever been. The revival of Oxford rowing was due more to Cherry than to any other one man, alike as oar and as President. His word went. If a knot of men were arguing and asked Con for his opinion, he would give them a decision, not an opinion, and that would settle the matter. When the war came, Con soon took a commission in the R.N.V.R., and there earned golden opinions not only as a man but also for his technical ability. His Commanding Officer wrote: "Con was easy to talk to and make friends with for he was so simple in all his faiths and had such a kindly philosophy. Before he'd been with us three months I would not willingly have exchanged him for any R.N. Officer."Cherry was always a devoted Westminster-we used often to talk of our old School together. Westminster laid the foundations well and truly, but I think he developed whilst he was at Oxford more than most. He became a personality, though he was somewhat aloof in manner and never acquired that hail-fellow-well-met bonhomie which wins an easy and wide popularity. Nor was he easy to know intimately. As was said of Isaac Walton, he "would be seen twice in no man's company he did not like, and liked none but such as he believed to be very honest men." Water was his element. At Westminster, at Oxford, yachting in the holidays and during the war he spent his life on the water, and it is as he would have wished that in the water he should find his last resting-place.
A memorial service was held in his memory on the 20th of December 1946.
He is commemorated on the Chatham naval Memorial 73,3.
