Sir Alfred Townsend Bucknill, OBE, PC (19 December 1880 – 22 December 1963), was an Englishjudge and a Privy Councillor. Specialising in maritime law, he presided over a number of boards of enquiry into naval events during the Second World War.
In June 1939, he was appointed the president of the board of enquiry into the loss of the new submarine HMS Thetis, which sank during trials with the loss of 99 lives.[2] Sir Alfred presided over further boards; for the sinking of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales by Japanese aircraft off Malaya in December 1941,[3] and for the "Channel Dash" in February 1942 when three large German warships had traversed the English Channel almost unscathed,[4]
Family life
Alfred married Brenda Boulnois (1879–1953) in 1905. They had two children at their home in Chelsea, London; Margaret, born 1908 and Peter Thomas, born 1910.[2]
