Admiral Sir Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith (1 April 1883 – 29 June 1965) was a Royal Navy officer and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was born Martin Eric Nasmith, adding "Dunbar" to his surname in 1923.
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Early life and education
Nasmith was born on 1 April 1883 at 136 Castelnau in Barnes, which was then in the county of Surrey and is now in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
Early career
Educated at Eastman's Royal Naval Academy in Winchester and HMS Britannia at Dartmouth, Nasmith joined the Royal Navy in 1898.
On 8 May 1912, King George V was in HMY Victoria and Albert in Weymouth Bay to witness Fleet manoeuvres. Because of heavy fog, the programme was disrupted, and the King expressed the desire to dive in a submarine. He embarked on HM Submarine D4, under then Lieutenant Nasmith's command, and (in the words of The Times of 10 May) "made a lengthy run in her when she was submerged." What made the occasion all the more remarkable was the presence on board of his second son, Prince Albert, who was to become King George VI, of Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty and future prime minister), and of then Captain Roger Keyes, Inspecting Captain of Submarines, who was to become the first Director of Combined Operations (the Commandos) in the early part of the Second World War.