Lt. Stuart Whitemore Chant MC

No.5 Commando

On 28th March 1942 during the Commando raid at St Nazaire, France, Lieut. Chant was in charge of a demolition party whose duty it was to destroy part of the pumping station by the dry dock. Although wounded in the hands, Lt Chant carried out his task successfully, despite being hampered by his hands being slippery with blood. He remained in the pumping station, helping to carry out the remainder of the demolitions,and showing fine leadership to others carrying out their tasks, until all were completed. Subsequently, in the street fighting he again displayed leadership of the highest order until he was wounded again, this time in the knee causing him to be taken prisoner. During the whole of this action, his determination to carry out his task, and his dash under fire is worthy of high recognition (L.G. 5.7.45)


Before the outbreak of war in 1939, Chant worked on the London Stock Exchange and was a Private in the Artist’s Rifles, a Territorial Army unit. On 22 October 1939, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) as a 2nd Lieutenant, and served with the British Expeditionary Force in France. After evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940, Chant volunteered for the Commandos.

With No.5 Commando, he underwent two years of demanding physical training in Dartmouth and North West Scotland, was promoted to Lieutenant and re-badged from the RASC to The Gordon Highlanders.

Chant and his demolition team, five strong in total, were assigned the Commandos most important task – the destruction of the pumping house and machinery at the southern end of the Normandie dock. If the explosives in HMS Campeltown did not destroy the dock gate, but the pumping house was knocked out, then the dock would be rendered useless.

On 26 March 1942, Lieutenant Chant embarked with the raiding party on Campbeltown and was one of the many Commandos hit by shrapnel when the Germans opened fire. Despite being wounded in the left leg and right arm, with smaller fragments peppering the front and left-hand side of his body, Chant joined the Commandos charging from the Campbeltown after the destroyer rammed into the Normandie dock at full speed.

Under constant fire, Chant and his team raced for the pumping house. Blowing the doors open, they rushed down stairs to the machinery forty feet below. The Commandos worked in semi-darkness as they had trained so many times, placing charges, detonators and fuses. Assisted by Sergeant Dockerill, Chant lit the fuses and hopped up the stairs on his uninjured leg to the exit. They narrowly avoided being crushed to death by a large block of concrete blown from the pumping house roof.

Chant then ordered his men to smash oilpipes and throw incendiary bombs into the pumping-house to destroy any machinery left inside. Evading German soldiers, the team swung hand over hand on the girders underneath a bridge, before taking cover amongst some railway trucks.

With the motorboats ablaze in the harbour escape by sea was now impossible. The remaining Commandos launched a bold charge into the Old Town, from where they hoped to escape to neutral Spain. Here, Chant was wounded for a second time, a bullet smashing into his right knee. Unable to move, he was taken prisoner by German soldiers.

Despite two escape attempts, Chant remained a Prisoner of War until October 1943, when he was repatriated as a ‘Grand Blessé’, a prisoner deemed by the Red Cross to be so seriously wounded that he would not be able to return to active duty. He was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the St Nazaire raid.

After the war, Chant worked for the Rank Organisation for five years, until unexpectedly, in 1951, he was asked to return to the Army as a Liaison Officer at SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) in Paris, answering to General Dwight D Eisenhower and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he was awarded the OBE in 1952.

After again retiring from the Army in 1955, Chant formed a public relations agency and worked in that field until 1982. In 1966, his wife succeeded to her father’s title and became The Lady Sempill, so he assumed by decree of Lyon Court in Scotland the name of Sempill.

Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Chant-Sempill passed away in July 1991, aged 74. His son, Lieutenant Colonel The Hon Ian Chant-Sempill, followed his father into the Army and became the last Commanding Officer of 1st Battalion The Gordon Highlanders before amalgamation with the Queen’s Own Highlanders in 1994.