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91-year-old sailor ‘rejoins’ Royal Navy to row around Portsmouth Harbour for charity
13 August 2024
A 91-year-old Royal Navy Korean War veteran rowed with today’s sailors around Portsmouth Harbour in his latest effort to fight Alzheimer’s disease.
One day after his birthday, retired officer Charles Wylie clambered into a boat with two serving Royal Navy Atlantic rowers to power for a couple of miles past the grey walls of warships arrayed in port.
Though the distance was relatively short Portsmouth is one of the busiest harbours in the UK – and Charles hadn’t rowed since the early days of his Royal Navy career 70 years ago.
But once on the water with Lieutenant Commander Hugo Mitchell-Heggs, a veteran of a Royal Navy team which rowed the Atlantic, and Lieutenant Commander Nic Hall, who is hoping to complete the same race this winter, Charles said “it just came back naturally” and pulling a few strokes “made me feel 31 not 91” as he and his shipmates brought the specially-designed ocean rowing boat back to the Navy’s sailing centre at HMS Excellent after an hour on the water.
“I miss the sea so I was in my element out there.”
Charles, who lives near Wickham, near Fareham, celebrated his 91st birthday with a ‘jump for joy’, a tandem parachute jump with the Army’s Red Devils, which raised more than £23,000 for Alzheimer’s Research; his wife of 65 years, Jean, has been struggling with dementia for the past decade.
The couple vowed when Charles retired from the Navy after a 39-year career in 1987 to “have fun for the rest of our lives together”.
Nearly four decades on, they continue to live by that mantra. “I count my blessings that at my age, I am still fit and healthy and have the ability to do something like this,” said Charles.
“My wife brought up our children – being in the Navy I was away mostly – and she taught me to be a thoroughly decent person.
“Dementia is a dreadful affliction and while there is nothing anyone can do now for Jean, hopefully in the future there will be.”
Charles joined the Royal Navy in the late ‘40s as a boy and left four decades later at the age of 54 as a commander, having served in 28 ships and 34 submarines, including command of a frigate and a flotilla of minesweepers operated by reservists.
We have been really inspired by Charles’ stories and will remember them when we heading across the Atlantic.
He was involved in seven wars/conflicts from Korea and the first Suez crisis in the 1950s through rioting in Malta, the Kuwait crisis and unrest in Indonesia in the 60s, ‘Cod War’ clashes with Iceland over fishing rights and, spanning everything, the Cold War with the Soviet bloc.
The team behind HMS Oardacious, the Navy’s ocean rowing programme which seeks to raise money for charity and awareness of mental health issues, through the sport said they were only too happy to grant Charles’ birthday wish.
“We have been really inspired by Charles’ stories and will remember them when we heading across the Atlantic,” Lieutenant Commander Hall said, before turning to the nonagenarian.
“There’s always a place for you on board.”
This December, she and three comrades – collectively known as the Valkyries – aim to be the first all-female military team to complete the ‘world’s toughest row’ from La Gomera in the Canaries to Antigua, covering more than 3,000 miles of the open Atlantic.
Determined to raise at least £50,000 via https://www.justgiving.com/page/charles-wylie-1678789500363, Charles is already eyeing up an abseil down Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower and possibly a wing walk.
After completing his row, Charles was treated to dinner with Portsmouth Naval Base Commander Commodore John Voyce then given a comprehensive tour of the site.