Guy Evelyn Fortescue Hubbard was born in Bristol in 1921. 

A member of the Royal Naval Reserve, he was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 11^th August 1942 as Acting Sub-Lt. RNR. (His wartime services have not been researched)

Guy married Cynthia H Shallow in Southampton in 1943.

He retired on 1^st July 1950 holding the rank of Lt. RNR, however on  3^rd October 1951 he was granted a Short Service Commission in the same rank, with seniority 4^th October 1946.

Hubbard saw service in the Korean War (again not researched) and on 4^th October 1954 he was promoted to Lt. Commander.

On 4^th October 1956 he was placed on the RN Emergency List.

On 8^th May 1957 he transferred from the Royal Navy to the RAF having been appointed to a Short Service Commission as a Flight Lieutenant (505432) (six years on the active list. and four years on the reserve) with seniority  of 9^th May 1957. On 27^th May 1957 he was removed from the RN Emergency List on transfer to the RAF.

He must have remained on the Naval Reserve however, as the London Gazette of 12^th April 1961, states: “The Queen has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Royal Naval and Royal Marine Forces Reserve Decoration to: Lieutenant G.E.F. Hubbard, R.N.R.” Cannot have been many serving RAF officers awarded a naval long service decoration!.

Note: His RD is dated 1955, which is commensurate with him having been commissioned in the RNR in 1942 (wartime service counting double) which gives his qualifying year as 1955. The date of Gazette would suggest that Hubbard did not apply for his medal until a few years later - perhaps he did not realise that as a serving officer his service still qualified towards the RD.

RAF MARINE BRANCH On 1^st January 1962 Hubbard transferred to the RAF Marine Branch, retaining his existing rank and seniority. (In July 1947 the RAF Marine Branch was officially formed. In 1948 the Marine Craft became a full branch of the RAF and was finally disbanded in 1986.)

This probably proved to be quite an astute move on Hubbard's part, as the ASR launches did seem to pull some rather “plum” postings. He served at RAF Gan in the Maldive Islands, July 1963 to June 1964, (Marine Craft Section - MCS). Tough posting this one, sunshine for 10 months of the year - which is probably why postings only lasted one year!  

In 1968 he was based at Akrotiri on Cyprus, when the following incident happened:  

Since the Suez crisis of 1956, Anglo-Egyptian relations had been tense to say the least. However, in  1968 despite residual political mistrust, the MCS went to the aid of the Egyptians. At 14:40 on August 18^th HMAFV 2769, commanded by Flight Lieutenant G. Hubbard, responded to a report of an aircraft accident that had been reported to the unit by an RAF Argosy.  They had seen a Russian-built Antonov AN 24 airliner crash into the sea 180 km south of the island at about 09:20 am. The report stated that the Antonev had broken up when it hit the water. It went down a considerable distance from Cyprus and it took Hubbard and his crew around five hours to reach the scene. A scene of absolute devastation greeted them; there were bodies floating in the water and no sign of any survivors. Worse still, there were innumerable sharks in the area feasting on the corpses. While Hubbard's crew were engaged in the recovery of the bodies, they were joined that night by Pinnace 1378, commanded by Squadron Leader Greenall. They ceased operations when it became too dark, but continued their unpleasant task at dawn the following morning. By noon it was clear that there were going to be no survivors, around twenty-five corpses had been recovered. The bodies were laid out inside and on the decks of HMAFV 2769, which then headed to Egypt, while Pinnace 1378 returned to base. (The downed Antonev belonged to United Arab Airlines and was flying from Cairo to Damascus with 33 passengers and 7 crew on board – all were lost. The reason for the crash was never discovered)

HMAFV 2769 arrived in Alexandria after a further six-hour journey. Hubbard was to have been escorted by a flotilla of Egyptian motor torpedo boats, but they had been unable to find him. He ordered the RAF ensign to be lowered as the launch entered the harbour. The RAF personnel were welcomed with open arms and they spent the night as guests of the Egyptian government.

The British Consul in Alexandria noted: “To them (the Egyptians), this was a friendly gesture by the British coming to the help of Egypt in distressing circumstances and the expressions of gratitude to the RAF personnel and to me were so profuse as to be almost embarrassing, it has added greatly to our prestige”