Obituary: Dame Joan Hammond

In her excellent obituary of Dame Joan Hammond [28 November], Elizabeth Forbes did not mention Hammond's great love of sailing, writes John Crisp.

In the 1960s, she and her devoted companions Lolita Marriott and Estrees Walker (incidentally all three ladies owned a Rolls-Royce) spent much time in her motor yacht Pankina based in Poole Harbour. I, as a youngish naval officer, was privileged to be their navigator on cross-channel trips. Her constant concern for the welfare of others was illustrated in daily short trips out to sea to "ditch the garbage"; too many other yachts did that at their harbour moorings.

Joan Hammond also gave many recitals, usually accompanied by Ivor Newton, who had introduced me to her, and together they made her last recording, an LP mainly of English songs, in 1965.