I know nothing about Rear-Admiral G. A. M. Wilson of Britain’s Royal Navy but my heart goes out to him in this scene recounted by physicist Terence Price:
In preparation for that event I was one of a twenty-strong technical party that crossed the Atlantic in the summer of 1957 to gather whatever advice was on offer. We were to spend a couple of weeks with Rickover and his team, and it was in a mood of high expectation that we had our first meeting in the old Main Navy Building in Washington. Rickover opened the proceedings by politely inviting the leader of our team to describe the British efforts. Rear-Admiral Wilson had been speaking for perhaps five minutes when Rickover brought his hand down with a crash on to the table. “Wilson, you have the valour of ignorance.”
Price, Terence. 2004. Political Physicist. Book Guild, Sussex, pp. 141-142.