Richard Crummey was born in 1916 Hartlepool, the son of Patrick Joseph and Eileen Mabel Crummey.  Patrick served in the Royal Navy from 1906 to 1930 and later became a Coastguard.  He had nine sons, seven of whom served in the Navy, and one daughter.

Terry joined submarines in 1932. During the war he served on HMS SPEARFISH, surviving a thirteen hour, 79-depth charge attack , leaving SPEARFISH badly damaged on the sea bed, with no power or lights. Somehow the engineers managed to surface, and after a 36 hour wait on the surface she was found by British destroyers and was towed back to port.

For his service in SPEARFISH he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal (London Gazette of 9 May 1940).

While SPEARFISH was being repaired Terry was drafted into TRIUMPH as the senior ASDIC operator (the boat’s sonar equipment), and later operated the boat’s internal telephone exchange. Following a depth charge attack on TRIUMPH on 25 October 1941, Terry was commended by his CO in the patrol report: “…operated the telephone exchange calmly efficiently and with a welcome dash of humour”

For his service in TRIUMPH, he was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Service Medal (London Gazette of 5 May 1942) “for daring, enterprise and devotion to duty in successful patrols in HM Submarines“.

Terry died when HMS TRIUMPH was lost with all hands having apparently struck a mine in the Aegean Sea.  He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial, Panel 68, Column 2.