a seaman and adventurer, Peter Tilbury was born in late 1914 in Wandsworth, London. He was the only child of John G. H and Isabel May (neé Older) Tilbury. Peter came from a wealthy background. His father worked as a ‘stockbroker’ in the City of London in 1911 and lived in Chigwell. Peter’s parents married in the summer of 1913 in Barnet and Peter was born just over a year later.

Tilbury never married and he next appears in a newspaper report of 1937. On 16 August of that year, he was one of nine people rescued from a pleasure yacht in the North Sea. The yacht was travelling from Southwold to Lowestoft, where she was based. Peter was one of two crew on board and was the recorded as the ‘mate’.

Tilbury joined the Royal Air Force in1941 and was commissioned on 7 April 1941 (Service Number 1251925), his commission being promulgated in the London Gazette of 18 July 1941. In 1945, He served in the ‘General Duties Branch’ reaching the rank of Flying Officer. This meant in practice that he was an Intelligence Officer. 

After the war and demobilisation, Tilbury lived in Sawbridgeworth at Sayesbury House, from about 1950 until his death in 1961.

In 1945 Tilbury began working for Christian Salvesen as an Able Seaman on Antarctic whaling expeditions and he was also based at Leith Harbour, South Georgia.

In 1949 Tilbury was recruited by the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC) for the sponsored project in support the renewed effort to establish profitable sealing exploitation at Albemarle, West Falkland. The CDC had bought the Golden Chance, and also the Canadian-built minelayer Protector III to provide logistical support for the two projects that the CDC was funding in the Falkland Islands – primarily to support the second attempt at a sealing venture at Albemarle on West Falkland.  Latterly both vessels were also used to support the Freezer Plant project located at Ajax Bay, in San Carlos Water. Tilbury became the skipper of the Golden Chance.

Golden Chance sailed for the Falkland Islands from Wivenhoe, Essex, in 1949, for service with the CDC and the South Atlantic Sealing Company. Golden Chance sailing in company with her was Protector III whose master was the deep-sea Board of Trade certified master mariner Captain Adrian MONK (1919-2004). 

Tilbury was the skipper the Golden Chance. Others sailing in Golden Chance included Don BONNER (1927-2014) and Robert Allan serving as deck crew and Louis (Mike) Robson (Jnr) (1923-1994) working in the Engine room. Edward (Eddie Snr; 1916-1997) Anderson served as mate in Golden Chance during the passage down to the Falklands. During the passage south the two ships stopped for fuel and supplies at Las Palmas, Recife, Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo. The hull of Golden Chance was strengthened by the fitting of steel plating in various places at Montevideo.

Golden Chance left the UK under tow by Protector III due to lack of numbers of Board of Trade certified crew on board. Passage crew numbers were kept to a minimum in an attempt to save money. For large parts of the voyage Golden Chance was towed by Protector III. With the help of 120 fathoms of 9” coir rope, a successful 8,500 miles passage was completed. The actual steaming time was 42 days

In addition to supporting the work of the sealing station at Albemarle Tilbury, as skipper of the Golden Chance, also spent some time ashore at the Ajax Bay Freezer plant acting for a period as unofficial site manager during the building phase of the Ajax Freezer project. Golden Chance was eventually abandoned in c.1960 as surplus to requirements and now lies as a wreck in the southeastern side of Stanley Harbour.

Tilbury’s name appears in the passenger log of the RMS Andes, a passenger liner of 26,000 tons plying the South America route. He embarked on this ship at Montevideo in Uruguay and sailed to Southampton, arriving on 6 November 1953. In the log, Peter is described as a ‘Ship’s Master’.

Between 1955 and 1958 the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition took place. This expedition was led by Sir Vivian FUCHS and Sir Edmund Hillary. This expedition achieved the first overland crossing of the Antarctic continent via the South Pole and was the first overland crossing to the South Pole since the days of Amundsen and Scott. Peter Tilbury joined the expedition because he felt that there was nothing else around at that time for him to do. Strangely Tilbury is not named in the diaries of either Fuchs or Hillary, but he did serve in some capacity in the support ships MV Magga Dan and HMNZS Endeavour.

After 1958 and the end of the Antarctic Expedition Tilbury returned to Europe. In 1961 he was taking an ocean-going racing yacht called Vigo across the Bay of Biscay bound for Hamble in Hampshire for his old friend, the yacht’s new owner, Mr. R Lochner MBE. Peter was one of three on board sailing the vessel, the others being David Logan (aged 17) and Dr Jack Kempton (aged 50). On 18 July 1961 they ran into a storm in the Bay for which it is infamous and all were washed overboard. David Logan survived by clinging on to the tiller for 25 hours before being rescued, but both Jack Kempton and Peter Tilbury were lost, their bodies never being recovered.

Friends and family described Peter Tilbury as an ‘adventurer’.