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Conrad was born in British Columbia on 20 Feb 1904, the third son of Gerald and Mary Alers Hankey. He was sent to England at the age of ten and later entered Dartmouth. He was awarded the DSC on 9 Jul 1940 whilst commanding the destroyer Vanquisher. He he had been captain of the small aircraft carriers Campania and Trumpeter in 1945, and one of his later commands was that of the modern destroyer Diamond. He served in the Royal Navy until 1954, having been nearly ten years a Captain.
Conrad was married on 5 Sep 1934 at Durham Cathedral to Penelope Longden of County Durham, by whom he had one son and two daughters.
In 1949 the whole family sailed from Tilbury to Buenos Aires on the Highland Brigade.
After leaving the Navy, Conrad worked for some years as a consultant in time and motion study, and was later secretary of the Veterinary Society. He was divorced from Penelope, who died in 1992.
Conrad himself had died on 27 Nov 1984, aged 80.
Conrad Alers Hankey
on Formidable - 1945
The new sloop, H.M.S. Wellington, which sailed this week for a three-year commission with the New Zealand Navy, has as her first lieutenant an officer who distinguished himself by a remarkable swimming feat in storm-lashed seas some years ago.
He is Lieutenant C.B.Alers Hankey, who earned the nickname ‘Hurricane Hank’ when he was a sub-lieutenant in the cruiser Capetown.
During a hurricane the Capetown was secured in comparative safety alongside the dockyard wall in Bermuda. The Flagship of the North America and West Indies squadron, H.M.S. Calcutta, was also secured alongside by a great number of wire hawsers, but in a less sheltered part of the basin.
When the hurricane was at its height these hawsers parted one by one, and the flagship was seen to be sweeping down on to the breakwater to leeward.
Sub-Lieutenant Hankey, the officer of the watch, told the bugler to sound ‘clear lower deck everybody aft’, and then dived overboard with a grassline. Tying one end of it round his waist he swam in the terrific seas to the drifting flagship.
Meanwhile Lieutenant W.S Roskill, of the sloop Wistaria, also swam with a line to the Calcutta. The two young officers were instrumental in saving the Flagship.
The Queenslander 28 February 1935