Greene entered the Admiralty as a Higher Division Clerk in 1881 From 1887 to 1892 he was Private Secretary to successive First Lords and became Principal Clerk in the Secretary's department in 1902. He was Assistant Secretary of the Admiralty, 1907 to 1911, in which year he became Permanent Secretary Considerable changes in the constitution of the Admiralty Board and other departments were made in 1917 and Greene became Secretary of the Ministry of Munitions, which post he held until his retirement in 1920.
Greet entered the Navy in 1867 and was promoted to midshipman in 1869. He served in the Pacific in the ZEALOUS and FAWN and was made a sub-lieutenant in 1874 He served in the JUNO, China Station, 1876 to 1877, and was promoted to lieutenant in 1878. He then spent the usual period at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, before his appointment to the Tenedos in 1882. In 1887 he served in the IRON DUKE, Channel, and in the following year he was appointed to the CHAMPION, Pacific Station. He was promoted to commander in 1891, served in the Channel and, from 1896, at a training establishment, and was promoted to captain in 1897. He retired with the rank of rear-admiral in 1907 and became an admiral on the retired list in 1916.
F W G Grant, Shoreham Pilot and Captain, born 8th March 1905, at Southwick, Sussex, son of Frederick Grant (born 1866, discharged Ebenezer in 1890) and Ellen Grant (formerly Sayers). His Father was a Trinity House Pilot licensed for the London Outports District of Shoreham-by- Sea, Sussex. Captain FWG Grant was appointed a Trinity House Pilot. A former master of the Tug "Harold Brown" owned by the Shoreham Harbour Trustees in 1971. Mr Grant had a varied life as a deck boy before qualifying as a master.
Dr Philip Gosse (1879-1959) ended his career as Superintendent of the Radium Institute, London in 1930, after which he not only collected documents and books relating to piracy, but wrote many works on the subject.
Baillie Grohman joined the Navy in 1903, becoming a lieutenant in 1909. He served in the Mediterranean and on the China station, and during the First World War on the east coast, in the Dover Patrol and in minesweepers In 1922 and 1923 he served in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and was made commander in the latter year He then became Senior Officer, First Minesweeping Flotilla, 1923 to 1924. He was promoted to captain in 1930 and between 1931 and 1933 was Senior Officer of a British Naval Mission to China. He then served in the Mediterranean, commanded a training establishment and at the beginning of the Second World War was again in the Mediterranean. He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1941 and in the same year was attached to the staff of the General Officer Commanding, Middle East. In 1942 he was nominated as Naval Force Commander for the Dieppe Raid, but, although he took part in the planning of the raid, he did not command it. Afterwards he became Flag Officer, Harwich, and in 1943 was promoted to vice-admiral, retiring in 1946.
Cuthbert Grasemann (d 1962) was a railwayman who rose to be Public Relations Officer of the Southern Railway, and later of the Southern Region of British Railways. He had a particular interest in the cross-channel ships and was co-author, with G.W.P. McLachlan, of English Channel Packet Boats (1939).
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
Fiott joined the Navy as a volunteer in 1798 and was present at the battle of Copenhagen, 1801. He took part in the Walcheren expedition of 1809 and in 1810 was made a lieutenant but court-martialled in the same year for using seditious language, dismissed his ship and put to the bottom of the Lieutenants' List. Soon afterwards, however, he was appointed to the MARLBOROUGH and served in the West Indies. After two years on half-pay he bought the QUEEN, a trading vessel, which was lost in 1818. From then until 1827 he owned the RETRENCH, sailing as master while still on half-pay until 1823. In this year the RETRENCH was attacked by Spanish pirates off Cuba. When he received a commission In 1823 to command HMS RENEGADE in the West Indies, he employed another half-pay naval captain on the Retrench, which was wrecked in 1824 but salvaged and, in 1827, sold In 1824 he was court-martialled again on various charges including that of mistreating his crew but was acquitted. From 1827 Fiott lived on the continent and remained there until his death.
Boyles became a lieutenant in 1777 and a captain in 1790. During the French wars he served in the West Indies, the Channel and the Mediterranean. He became a rear-admiral in 1809 and from 1810 to 1812 served in the Mediterranean, in the TRIDENT and the CANOPUS. He became a vice-admiral in 1814.
Hewett entered the navy in 1847, serving as midshipman in the second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852-3. In 1854 he was acting mate of the BEAGLE and in command of a Lancaster gun in the battery before Sevastopol, he gallantly opened fire on a Russian column ordered to spike the gun and withdraw the men. His action proved decisive using grapeshot and wheeling the gun around and firing within 300 yards. His involvement at Inkermen (5 Nov 1854) proved distinguished and Captain Lushington promoted him to Lieutenant and with seniority on 26 October 1854. He was also appointed Commander of the Beagle until 1857. One of the first recipients of the Victoria Cross for his conduct on 26 October and 5 November 1854, he appeared In the Gazette on 24 February 1857. Later Hewett was appointed commander of the ROYAL YACHT in 1858, then continued to command the VIPER, RINALDO and BASILISK. He was flag captain to Sir H Kellet in the OCEAN, 1870-2 and captain of DEVASTATION, 1872-3. From 1873-6 he was commodore and commander- in- chief on the west coast of Africa. He was made KCB on 31 March 1874 and later was also KCSI, chevalier of the Legion d?Honneur, member of the order of the Mejidiye and the Abyssinian order of Solomon. In 1877 he was appointed to the ACHILLES and commander-in- chief in the East Indies in April 1882. He became vice-admiral on 8 July 1884 and between 1886-8 was in command of the channel fleet. He was sent as a patient to Haslar Hospital, Gosport, where Hewett died on 13 May 1888.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
After qualifying at Cambridge, Heald served in the Navy as a Temporary Surgeon, 1914 to 1915. He was in the ROHILLA, hospital ship, which was wrecked in 1914, and then the CONQUEROR. He was subsequently Principal Medical Officer, RAF, Middle East, and Medical Adviser, Department of Civil Aviation, Air Ministry. Dr Heald was Consulting Physician to the Royal Free Hospital and Consulting Physician, Rheumatic Diseases at the Middlesex Hospital.
Hammill entered the Navy in 1865, was made a lieutenant in 1871 and a commander in 1881. At the bombardment of Alexandria, 1882, he commanded the MONARCH and then the Naval Brigade. He later served with the Naval Brigade at Port Said. Hammill again served with a Naval Brigade during the Sudan Campaign of 1884 to 1885, when he accompanied the Nile Expedition despatched for the relief of General Gordon. He commanded the naval force south of Wadi Halfa during the passage of the steamers through the Second Cataract and served with the Nile Flotilla in surveying the Upper Nile. For these services he was promoted to captain in 1885. Hammill held various posts at the Admiralty between 1886 and 1892. He then returned to service afloat until his early death.
Montgomerie was a brother of Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton. The family intermarried with the Hamiltons of Rozelle, Ayrshire. The two families managed and commanded East India Company ships for nearly fifty years. Montgomerie was commander of the BESBOROUGH for three voyages, 1777 to 1788, and commander and managing owner of the BONHAM CASTLE on her first voyage, 1793 to 1794. He was managing owner of the ship for her next three voyages, between 1795 and 1801, which were made under the command of his cousin, John Hamilton.
E.S. Houlder started business as a ship and insurance broker in 1853 and soon began specializing in the Australian trade. when his brother joined him in 1856, the name Houlder Brothers and Company was adopted. They soon began owning ships and extended their regular service to Australia to New Zealand. The search for return cargoes led them to the Pacific Islands and by the end of the 1860s an interest in the carriage of contract cargoes resulted in voyages to India and South Africa. In 1881 the Company turned its attention to the South American trade and was responsible for the first shipments of frozen meat from the River Plate. The partnership became a limited liability company in 1898. In 1911, Furness Withy (q.v.) acquired a large holding of the Company's shares. Interests in the Australian and other trades were sold in 1912 and the Company concentrated its activities on the development and extension of its South American trade and in particular the River Plate meat trade. An associate company, Empire Transport Co Ltd, had been set up in 1902 and joint ventures with Furness Withy included: British & Argentine Steam Navigation Co Ltd, 1911 to 1933, British Empire Steam Navigation Co Ltd, 1914, and Furness Houlder Argentine Line Ltd, 1915. During the inter-war period oil tankers were added to the facilities for handling bulk cargoes. A large holding in the Alexander Shipping Co Ltd was purchased in 1938 and a controlling interest was acquired in 1947. After the Second World War, the interest in the South American trade was maintained and the bulk shipping activities were further diversified by the addition of ore carriers and gas tankers. Houlder Brothers became a wholly owned subsidiary of Furness Withy.
Sir John was the son of Sir William Herschel. He was Senior Wrangler at Cambridge and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1813 for his contributions to chemistry and mathematics. Through assisting his father he came to adopt astronomy as his career and went to live at the Cape of Good Hope from 1833 to 1838, making a star survey of the southern sky. The results of this work were published in 1847. On his return to England, Herschel became an active member of several scientific societies. He was employed as Master of the Mint from 1850 to 1855 and wrote many articles for the Encyclopaedia Britannica and other general works of reference. There is a translation of Gunther Buthman's 'The shadow of the telescope. A biography of John Herschel' by B E Pagel (New York, 1970).
Henslow entered the dockyard service as a shipwright apprentice to Sir Thomas Slade (d 1771). After a period at the Navy Office as a draughtsman, he moved quickly up the service as Master Boat Builder at Woolwich, 1762 to 1764, Purveyor of Chatham Yard, 1764 to 1765, and Master Caulker of Portsmouth, 1765 to 1767. In 1767 he was Second Assistant to the Master shipwright at Portsmouth and in 1771 was the Assistant to the Surveyor of the Navy. He was Master Shipwright at Plymouth, 1775 to 1784 In 1785 he was appointed Surveyor of the Navy, which post he held until 1806.
Horton-Smith was a barrister and joint founder and Secretary of the Imperial Maritime League, which was active between 1908 and 1913. It was founded as a protest against the British Navy League, which fully supported the actions of Lord Fisher. The Imperial Maritime League felt that the Navy League did not go far enough in its demands for the strengthening of British naval power. Horton-Smith was the author of numerous pamphlets on naval affairs.
Atlases, maps and plans - documents.
Hamilton entered the Navy in 1869 and served in the Bristol in the West Indies, 1870 to 1871, and then in the Ariadne in the Mediterranean, 1872. From 1877 to 1878 he served in the Martin training brig on a cruise to the West Indies. In 1878 he joined the Liffey which sailed to Coquimbo where the crew took over the Shah. On the return voyage Hamilton thus found himself as part of the Naval Brigade in the Zulu War of 1879, for which service he was mentioned in despatches. He was also made a lieutenant in this year. He then served in the Mediterranean in the Thunderer until 1881. In 1892 he was made a commander and appointed to the Hood, 1893 to 1896, in the Mediterranean. He was promoted to captain in 1898. In 1907 he was made rear-admiral and from 1914 to 1916 was Second Sea Lord. He then became Commander-in-Chief, Rosyth, in which command he died.
Hamilton entered the Navy in 1822 and became a lieutenant in 1829. Between 1826 and 1830 he served in the CAMBRIAN in the Mediterranean and on the South American Station. From 1839 he spent four years sheep farming in Australia. He was promoted to captain on the retired list in 1856.
Lieutenant-Colonel John Huskisson was the youngest son of Captain Thomas Huskisson (q.v.). He was appointed a second lieutenant in the Royal Marines in 1833 and served in the CAMBRIDGE, Mediterranean Station, from 1840 to 1842, being promoted to first lieutenant in 1842. He served in HMS OCEAN from 1844 to 1847 and then became Quartermaster of the Chatham Division, rising to captain in 1852. The outbreak of the Crimean War led to his appointment to the NANKIN, East Indies in 1854. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 1879, on the retired list and died ca.1889.
Hawke entered the Navy in 1720 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1729. He served in the Mediterranean, West Indies and off the West African coast between periods on half pay and became a captain in 1734. At the outbreak of war in 1739 he blockaded Barbados for four years until his appointment to the Berwick, in which he took a noteworthy part in the battle of Toulon and remained in the Mediterranean for the next eighteen months. After a brief period at home he was appointed, in 1747, vice-admiral and second-in-command of the Channel Fleet under Sir Peter Warren (1703-1752), and he succeeded to the command when Warren fell ill. His decisive victory off Finisterre in 1747 won him a knighthood and, in December of that year, he was elected a Member of Parliament for Portsmouth, a seat he held for thirty years. When peace came he commanded the Channel Fleet until 1752. In 1755 he again hoisted his flag, in the ST GEORGE, and was appointed to the Western Squadron. He was sent to the Mediterranean in June 1756 but was too late to prevent Minorca falling to the French. Having been promoted to admiral in 1757 and appointed to command the Channel Fleet, he took part in the Rochefort expedition. He held this command again in 1759 in the ROYAL GEORGE, enforced the blockade of Brest and won a decisive victory at Quiberon Bay. From 1766 to 1771 Hawke was First Lord of the Admiralty and was raised to the peerage in 1776. See Montagu Burrows, The Life of Edward, Lord Hawke (London, 1883) and Ruddock F. Mackay, Admiral Hawke (Oxford, 1965).
Lady Invernairn, nee Elspeth Tullis, married William (later Sir William) Beardmore (1856-1936), Chairman and Managing Director of William Beardmore and Co., Engineers and Shipbuilders, in 1902. He was created Baron Invernairn of Strathnairn in 1921. They both met Ernest (later Sir Ernest) Shackleton (1874-1922) in Edinburgh in 1905, not long after the latter's return from the Antarctic where he had taken part as a junior officer in the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901 to 1904. In 1906 Shackleton entered Beardmore's employment at Parkhead, Glasgow. With Mrs Beardmore's encouragement, he planned his own British Antarctic Expedition in the NIMROD in 1907. Shackleton went south again in the ENDURANCE as leader of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914 to 1917. See H.R. Mill, The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton (London, 1923) and Margery and James Fisher, Shackleton(London, 1957).
Jenkins Jones became a lieutenant in 1813 and a commander in 1816, being appointed to the JULIA. She was wrecked on the island of Tristan da Cunha in 1817 but Jones was acquitted at the subsequent court martial. From 1822 to 1824 he commanded the SAPPHO on the Cork Station and in 1828 the GLOUCESTER. Soon after, however, he was promoted captain into the ROYAL ADELAIDE but remained on half-pay until he took command of the CURACOA in 1839, on the South American Station, remaining there until 1842.
Martyn Jerram entered the Navy as a navigating cadet in 1871. He served in home waters in the VALOUROUS, 1873, and the HERCULES, 1873 to 1874, and was then in the MONARCH, 1874 to 1877, Mediterranean, with two short periods spent in the CRUISER in 1876 and the SWIFTSURE in 1877. In 1881 he became a lieutenant and was on the China Station from 1882 to 1883 in the IRON DUKE. He took out the new torpedo boat CHILDERS, built for the government of Victoria, Australia, in 1884 and was then appointed to the REINDEER, East Indies Station, and in 1889 to the CONQUEST. In 1891 Jerram was called upon to act as vice-consul in Mpanda, Tanganyka, until the British South Africa Company's expedition to Mashonaland had disembarked. He became a commander in 1894, a captain in 1899, a rear-admiral in 1908 and was appointed second-in-command in the Mediterranean, 1910 to 1912. From 1913 to 1915 he was Commander-in-Chief, China, and had to counter Von Spee's powerful squadron. To make best use of his ships, Jerram shifted his flag on shore at Singapore. From 1915 to 1916 he commanded the Second Battle Squadron, Grand Fleet, and led the line at Jutland, handing over his command when Beatty became Commander-in-Chief. When the Naval Welfare Committee was established, Jerram became its President.
Daniel Tonge (1788-1848), the son of Captain Daniel Tonge, RN (d 1800) was a master mariner and shipowner in Liverpool. In 1820 he established himself as a merchant and agent for the sale of ships. By 1846 he had been joined by his son Percival (fl 1840-1870) to form Daniel Tonge and Son. Two years later, Henry Curry (d 1865) was taken into the partnership which was renamed Tonge, Curry and Co. Henry Curry had begun business in Liverpool in the early 1840s and by 1843 was operating as a commission merchant under the name of Henry Curry and Co. In 1846 he became a broker for Lloyds. By 1850 Charles Walford Kellock (d 1897), the son of Henry Gray Kellock (fl 1820-1850), a lieutenant in the Navy, who had established himself in Liverpool in the early 1840s as an agent for Lloyds, joined the company. In this year the three partners in the company were Charles W Kellock, Henry Curry and Percival Tonge. In 1855, the partnership was dissolved. Percival Tonge continued on his own under the name of Tonge and Co, and this company remained in business until 1877. Charles W. Kellock remained with Henry Curry to form Curry and Co and two years later the name was changed to Curry, Kellock and Co. In October 1864 this partnership was dissolved and two companies emerged, H.F. Curry and Co and C.W. Kellock and Co. H.F. Curry and Co closed in 1866, the year after Henry Curry's death. C.W. Kellock greatly expanded his business and in 1867 opened an office in London under the management of his brother W.B. Kellock (fl 1867-85). Auction sales were conducted at the Royal Exchange in the Lloyd's Captains Room. In 1885 the management of the London office was taken over by George Kay, a partner of C.W. Kellock. In the mid-1880s, Kellock's two eldest sons, William Walter Kellock (d 1929) and Henry Gray Kellock (d 1926) joined the company and later became partners. In 1894 Nelson Cameron (d 1905) of the firm of Taylor Cameron and Co joined the firm. On his death in 1905 Henry Gray Kellock, who had retired from the company in 1893 to join the firm of Pim, Forwood & Kellock in New York, returned. Charles W. Kellock retired from the company and died in 1897. His two sons remained as partners until their deaths. The management of the company was then taken over by various senior partners within the firm. The Liverpool office was closed in 1972 and the London office is still active. By the middle of the nineteenth century this company had become one of the leading ship brokers of Liverpool. By the end of the century, probably every major vessel trading regularly in and out of Liverpool and London had appeared on the Company books at one time or another. An unprecedented sale occurred in December 1854 when a fleet of 78 vessels was sold at public auction at the Cotton Sale Room, Liverpool. The sale lasted three days and realized a total of over half a million pounds. During the Crimean War the company acted as brokers and appraisers to the Admiralty and sold a number of Russian prizes. During the First World War, numerous German steamships were auctioned by Kellock for the Admiralty. In addition to ship brokerage, during the nineteenth century Kellock's owned and operated their own fleet of sailing vessels and steamships.
Howard Kelly, brother of Sir John Kelly, served in the TEMERAIRE and CRUISER in the Mediterranean between 1889 and 1892 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1894. From 1902 to 1904 he served in Somaliland, returning from the East Indies Station in 1906. He was in naval intelligence from 1907, promoted to captain in 1911 and was then naval attachee; in Paris for three years. In 1914 he was given command of the GLOUCESTER and won distinction by his determined chase of the GOEBEN. He was Commodore of the Light Cruiser Squadron, 1917, and, in 1918, of the British Adriatic Force. Between 1919 and 1921 he was head of the Naval Mission to Greece and was promoted to rear-admiral in 1922. In the next year he commanded the First Battle Squadron and in 1925 the Second Cruiser Squadron. He was promoted to vice-admiral in 1927 and for the next two years he commanded the First Battle Squadron. After this he was second-in-command, Mediterranean Fleet, until 1930. In 1931 he became an admiral and went out to China until 1933, as Commander-in-Chief of the station. Kelly retired in 1936. He visited Australia in 1938 and then went to lecture in Canada in 1940. From that year until 1944 he was naval representative in Turkey.
Kennedy was first mate of the TIGRIS from 1845 to 1849 on three voyages from England to India and was also first mate of the MEDWAY from 1849 to 1852 during three voyages to Australia, taking emigrants to Port Phillip. He commanded the ARIES, going again to Australia, 1853 to 1854, the RACER, 1862 to 1863, London to Melbourne, to Calcutta and back and then home, the CANOPUS from England to India, 1864 to 4866 and the HORNET, 1866 to 1867 to India, Trinidad, home and back to India. The HORNET was burnt in 1868. Between 1868 and 1870 Kennedy carried mules and horses for the Abyssinian campaign in the Tynemouth and from 1871 to 1873 made five voyages to India in the Yorkshire. He gained his master's certificate in 1849 and an endorsement in steam in 1870.
Keppel entered the Navy in 1735 and served off the coast of Guinea and then in the Mediterranean. In 1740 he accompanied Anson on his voyage round the world. Anson promoted him to acting lieutenant, which rank was confirmed on Keppel's return to England in 1744. In 1745 his ship ran aground off Belle Isle and he and his crew were taken prisoner by the French; later Keppel was released on parole. After peace was made, in 1748, he was made a captain and sent out in the CENTURION to the Mediterranean as Commander-in-Chief and Ambassador to the States of Barbary to treat with the Dey of Algiers. In 1754 he was appointed to take command of the North American Station and returned home when Boscawen relieved him. In 1755 he was Member of Parliament for Chichester and represented two other constituencies until 1782. He sat as a member of the court martial on Admiral John Byng (1704-1757). In 1758 he was put in command of a squadron which captured Goree, and in 1759 joined Hawke's squadron and fought at Quiberon Bay. He was the naval commander of the force which reduced Belle Isle in 1761 and in 1762 went as second-in-command of the naval forces in the Havana Expedition. when the Commander-in-Chief, Sir George Pocock (1706-1792), returned to England, Keppel was left in command, appointed rear-admiral and remained for a time at Jamaica until the peace. In 1765 and 1766 he was on the Admiralty Board, was promoted to vice-admiral in 1770 and to admiral in 1778. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet in 1778, when the French entered the American War of Independence. After the inconclusive battle off Ushant, Keppel and his deputy, Palliser (1723-1796), blamed each other. At the subsequent court martial requested by Keppel, he was acquitted but soon afterwards struck his flag; this ended his active service. He was briefly First Lord of the Admiralty, for two short periods in 1782 and 1783, and was created Viscount Keppel in 1782. See Thomas Robert Keppel, The Life of Augustus Viscount Keppel (London, 1842).
Royal Navy: Administration - volumes relating to local administration
Leonard G Carr Laughton, son of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton by his first wife, shared his father's passion for maritime history. Little is known of his early life including his date of birth or details of his education. He seems to have worked alongside his father, collecting many notes and references on a vast variety of naval subjects from documents kept at the Public Record Office, British Museum, Pepysian Library and many other repositories. He also studied archaeology and etymology. He made a study of ship decoration and published Old Ship Figureheads and Sterns in 1925. He was involved in the restoration of HMS VICTORY and wrote a 'Report to the Victory Technical Committee', 1927-32, giving information that would help in restoring her to her condition at the time of Trafalgar. He was the prime mover, alongside others such a Harold H Brindley, Cdr C N Robinson, Sir Alan Moore, William Wyllie and Harold Wyllie, in the formation of The Society of Nautical Research in 1928. He had always wanted to produce a 'Nautical Encyclopaedia or Dictionary', and was one of the Society's main objectives, but L G Carr Laughton was never satisfied he had found out enough to justify publication. He died in 1956.
Lillicrap became a shipwright apprentice at Devonport in 1902. After a time at Keyham and Greenwich he was appointed Assistant Constructor at Devonport in 1910. He then joined the Director of Naval Construction's department at the Admiralty, where he was made Acting Constructor in 1917. Lillicrap was appointed Lecturer in Naval Architecture to Probationary Assistant Constructors at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in 1921 and became Constructor, Director of Naval Construction Department, in 1922. He was Acting Assistant Director of Naval Construction, in charge of submarines from 1936, and Assistant Director of Naval Construction in charge of cruisers from 1938. In 1941 he was appointed Deputy Director, and in 1944, Director, of Naval Construction, a post he held until his retirement in 1951.
Lister entered the Navy in 1916. He qualified in engineering as a lieutenant in 1924, was Commander (E) in the Newcastle, 1943 to 1945, and served in the Engineer-in-Chief's department, 1946 to 1949. Lister had become Captain (E) in 1946 and in 1950 joined the Mechanical Training and Repair Establishment at Portsmouth where he remained until his retirement in 1953.
Walter Lord (8 Oct 1917-19 May 2002) published his most famous work, A Night to Remember, in 1955. A journalistic narrative history of the TITANIC, the book became a British film (in 1958) and Lord was asked to be a consultant on James Cameron's film 'Titanic'. (1998). He is credited with having revived the memory of the ship, about which not a single book was published between 1913 and 1955. His book has been a bestseller ever since.
His life-long fascination stemmed from his mother's tales of her voyages on the OLYMPIC, one of TITANIC's two sister ships, which she used to tell him as bedtime stories. By the age of nine, the story of the TITANIC had become his greatest interest and he persuaded his mother to take him across the Atlantic on the OLYMPIC, so that he could learn more about the lost liner.
Through the years he talked to and corresponded with scores of survivors, rescuers and others intimately connected with the disaster. He tracked down nearly 60 TITANIC survivors to get their stories for 'A Night To Remember', and collected much commemorative memorabilia, donated over many years by his friends and admirers.
William MacQuitty (15 May 1905 - 5 Feb. 2004) was born in Belfast. He was six when he watched the launch of the TITANIC on 30 May 1911, and saw her set sail on her fateful maiden voyage a year later. During the Second World War he worked in film production for the Ministry of Information but it was only in the 1950s that his interest in the TITANIC was rekindled. His wife had been reading Lord's 'A Night to Remember' and he realised that this was the film he had been waiting for. He took an option on the film rights, met Walter Lord, and together they developed a screenplay based on the book.
MacQuitty then produced the film, also called 'A Night to Remember' (directed by Roy Ward Baker) and following its success won a contract for the Independent Television Authority's franchise for Ulster.
Thomas Louis entered the Navy in 1770, was promoted to lieutenant in 1777 and to captain in 1783. In 1794 he took command of the MINOTAUR, one of the ships in Nelson's squadron during the battle of the Nile, 1798; he continued under Nelson's orders in 1799, off the coast of Italy. Promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1804, Louis commanded the blockade off Boulogne, after which he hoisted his flag in the CANOPUS, off Toulon, in 1805. Still in the CANOPUS, Louis was second-in-command of the squadron which destroyed the French fleet at the battle of San Domingo, 1806; for this he was rewarded with a baronetcy. Later in 1806 he took charge of a small squadron in the Eastern Mediterranean and remained there until his death. See H.B. Louis, 'One of Nelson's Band of Brothers: Admiral Sir Thomas Louis, bart' (Malta, 1951). John Louis, son of Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis (q.v.), entered the Navy in 1795, was promoted to lieutenant in 1801, to commander in 1805 and to captain in 1806. He served during 1810 off the coast of Ireland and off Cadiz, was in the Mediterranean in 1811 and then went out to the West Indies. After several years on half-pay, he served again in the West Indies, 1826 to 1830. In 1837 he was appointed Captain Superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard and also to the command of the WILLIAM AND MARY yacht. He was Superintendent of Malta Dockyard, 1838 to 1843, and of Devonport, 1846 to 1850. Louis became Rear-Admiral in 1838, Vice-Admiral in 1849 and Admiral in 1851.
Thomas Louis entered the Navy in 1770, was promoted to lieutenant in 1777 and to captain in 1783. In 1794 he took command of the MINOTAUR, one of the ships in Nelson's squadron during the battle of the Nile, 1798; he continued under Nelson's orders in 1799, off the coast of Italy. Promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1804, Louis commanded the blockade off Boulogne, after which he hoisted his flag in the CANOPUS, off Toulon, in 1805. Still in the CANOPUS, Louis was second-in-command of the squadron which destroyed the French fleet at the battle of San Domingo, 1806; for this he was rewarded with a baronetcy. Later in 1806 he took charge of a small squadron in the Eastern Mediterranean and remained there until his death. See H.B. Louis, 'One of Nelson's Band of Brothers: Admiral Sir Thomas Louis, bart' (Malta, 1951).
Maclear entered the Navy in 1851, became a lieutenant in 1859 and a commander in 1868. He sailed with Captain G.S. Nares in 1872 during the CHALLENGER expedition. When Nares left the ship at Hong Kong, Maclear was the most senior officer to complete the voyage which lasted until 1876, the year he was promoted to captain. In 1879 he succeeded Nares in command of the ALERT and completed his survey of the Magellan Straits before moving to the Indian Ocean and Australian waters. From 1883 to 1887 he commanded the survey ship FLYING FISH charting the Korean and China coasts. In 1891 he became a rear-admiral and retired. He was promoted to vice-admiral in 1897, to admiral in 1903 and continued working at the Hydrographic Department compiling Admiralty sailing directions. See: Sir Archibald Day, The Admiralty Hydrographic Service (London, 1967).
William Henry Maxwell entered the Royal Navy as a Cadet on 12 January 1854. He served in HMS EURYALUS in the Baltic during the war with Russia, January 1854-April 1856, and was appointed Midshipman on 12 January 1856. He was promoted to Mate on 11 January 1860 whilst serving in HMS BOSCAWEN at Cape Station, May 1856-March 1860. After rising to the rank of Lieutenant on 13 January 1860, he served in HMS LYRA on the east coast of Africa, March 1860-January 1862, taking as prize a Spanish slaving barque and 18-20 Arab slave dhows, and freeing and landing 200 slaves on the Seychelles. He was made Commander on 6 July 1866 whilst serving in HMS SUTLEJ in the Pacific, May 1863-September 1866. During 1868 and 1869, he was on board HMS OCTAVIA and HMS DRYAD, when he participated in the Abyssinian Expedition, voyaged to the East Indies, and took an Arab slave dhow as a prize on the coast of Madagascar, again freeing and landing 200 slaves on the Seychelles.
Maxwell served at HMS EXCELLENT, the School of Gunnery, Portsmouth, from November 1869 to November 1872, receiving a promotion to the rank of Captain on 29 November 1872. He then served as Captain in HMS EMERALD at the Australian Station, July 1878-August 1882, and from March 1883 to early 1885 he was in HMS NEPTUNE as part of the Channel Fleet. He acted as Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria in Hong Kong, 1887-1888, and after his return to Britain, was appointed Rear-Admiral on 1 January 1889 and Vice-Admiral on 9 December 1894, before retiring from the Navy on 25 June 1895. He subsequently acted as Conservator of the Thames, 1896-1906, during which time he was promoted to the rank of Admiral, Retired on 21 March 1900. Maxwell died on 1 July 1920.
As an infant, MacGregor was saved from the Indiaman, KENT, which caught fire in the Bay of Biscay in 1825. He was well known as Rob Roy MacGregor because of his pioneering zeal while travelling in his canoe, the Rob Roy. This was first launched in 1865 and he navigated a network of rivers, canals and lakes, including the Rhine, Danube and Seine and Lakes Constance, Zurich and Lucerne. His most demanding voyage was in 1868 when he went through the Suez Canal down to the Red Sea and from thence to Palestine, navigating the Jordan and Lake Gennesareth. He published ' A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe' (London, 1866), 'A voyage alone in the Yawl Rob Roy' (London, 1867), 'The Rob Roy on the Baltic' (London, 1867) and 'The Rob Roy on the Jordan Red Sea and Gennesareth' (London, 1869). See also Edwin Hodder, 'John MacGregor ('Rob Roy')' (London, 1894).
McClintock entered the Navy in 1831. He served as a midshipman in the SAMARANG, South America, 1831 to 1835, then in the survey ship CARRON in the Irish Sea, 1835, and the HERCULES in the Channel, 1836 to 1837. From 1838 to 1841 he was in the CROCODILE on the North American Station. Between 1841 and 1842 he took courses in the EXCELLENT and at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. McClintock next served as mate of the GORGON, on the South American Station, 1843 to 1845. He received his promotion to lieutenant in 1845 and was appointed to the FROLIC, Pacific Station, where he remained until 1847. For the next twelve years he was almost continually in the Arctic regions, serving on expeditions searching for Sir John Franklin and his men. During 1848 and 1849 McClintock was in the ENTERPRISE. From 1850 to 1851 he was Lieutenant of the ASSISTANCE on the expedition led by Captain Horatio T. Austin (1801-1865). During the expedition of 1852 to 1854 he commanded the INTREPID, steam tender to the RESOLUTE, Captain Henry Kellett (1806-1875). On his return he was promoted to captain. Lady Franklin chose McClintock to command her private search expedition in the yacht FOX, from 1857 to 1859. This effort was at last successful in solving the mystery and many relics of the lost expedition and Franklin's final message were recovered from King William Island. McClintock was knighted on his return. He published an account of his expedition, The Voyage of the Fox in 1859.
In 1860 McClintock commanded the BULLDOG making soundings between Britain, Iceland, Greenland and Labrador, over the route of a proposed submarine telegraph cable. From 1861 to 1862 he commanded the DORIS in the Mediterranean, acting as escort to the Prince of Wales on his tour of the Near East, and from 1863 to 1865 commanded the AURORA, in the Channel and the North Sea during the Prusso-Danish War and later in the West Indies. Be was Commodore-in-Charge at Jamaica from 1865 to 1868, was promoted to rear-admiral in 1871 and from 1872 to 1879 was Admiral Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard, being appointed to vice-admiral in 1877. He sat on the organizing committee for the British Arctic Expedition of 1875 to 1876 led by Captain G S Nares. From 1879 to 1883 he was Commander-in-Chief on the North American and West Indies Station. He was promoted to admiral and retired in 1884. See Sir Clements Markham, Life of Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock (London, 1909).
The Middletons had been married for three years when they left Portsmouth on the ATLANTA to travel to Gibraltar, where Capt Middleton had been appointed to run the Navy Yard. Susannah Middleton's father John Martin Leake was Comptroller of Army Accounts and her brother William had been posted in 1805 from the Artillery to the Eastern Mediterranean. Robert Gambier Middleton was the son of George Middleton, former Comptroller of Customs for the port of Leith and elder brother of Sir Charles Middleton, Lord Barham and First Lord of the Admiralty. Robert Middleton had been taken under the wing of his uncle and entered the navy at the age of 12 seeing action with the Mediterranean fleet under Lord Hood. He was made post-Captain in 1794 and in 1803 he was placed in charge of the North Foreland District of the Sea Fencibles. In 1805 he was posted to Gibraltar as Superintendent of the Navy Yard. The Middletons remained in Gibraltar for three years before returning home in 1808. Susannah travelled home on the ILLUSTRIOUS in May 1808 prior to Capt Middleton who returned to England shortly after to take up a position in the Navy Board in London. In 1830 he was appointed Storekeeper-General to the Navy and retired in 1832 with the rank of Rear-admiral. Following their return to England, Susannah had the first of 10 children, 7 of whom reached adulthood.
See sub-fonds level descriptions for individual biographies.
The Naval Signal School, known as HMS Mercury since 1941, was founded at Portsmouth in 1901. In 1942 the school was moved to East Meon, near Petersfield, Hampshire.
Lieutenant Merry (1922-1986) joined the Royal Navy on his 18th birthday in August 1940 for war service. He was appointed Flag Lieutenant to Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser and saw service in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean theatres. He was on the bridge of the battleship HMS DUKE OF YORK during the Battle of the North Cape in 1943 and witnessed the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst on 25 December 1943. He remained as Flag Lieutenant when Admiral Fraser was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Pacific Fleet. He was present on the deck of the USS MISSOURI in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945 and witnessed Admiral Fraser signing the Japanese surrender document on behalf of Britain. Lieutenant Merry was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and after the War he elected to remain in the Royal Navy and served in a variety of appointments at sea and ashore in the UK and around the world, including Australia and the USA. In the early 1960s he attended the Allied Forces' Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, and then served in a NATO appointment on the staff of Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic. He retired from the Royal Navy in the rank of Commodore in 1977. Lieutenant Merry died in January 1986 at the age of 63.
Charles Middleton entered the navy as a captain's servant in 1741, was promoted a lieutenant in 1745 and post captain in 1758. In 1778 he became Comptroller of the Navy, a position he held until 1790. He was created a baronet in 1781 and, though holding a civil post, a rear-admiral in 1787, being made a vice-admiral in 1793 and admiral in 1795. In 1794-5 he was senior sea lord to Lord Spencer and in 1805-6, First Lord of the Admiralty. Between 1804 and 1807 he headed the Commission for revising and digesting the civil affairs of the navy, being made a peer in May 1805 on accepting the appointment as First Lord.
Alexander Hood, elder brother of Sir Samuel Hood and cousin of Viscount Bridport and Viscount Hood, entered the Navy in 1767. In 1772 he joined the RESOLUTION for Cook's second voyage. He became a lieutenant in 1777 and a commander in 1781. In the same year be was made Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Samuel (later Viscount) Hood in the BARFLEUR in the West Indies, and was later given command of the AIMABLE, a French prize, which he took to England in 1783. In 1793 he commanded the HEBE and in 1794 the AUDACIOUS but was compelled in the same year to retire from active service through ill-health until 1797. In this year he was appointed to the MARS and was put ashore at the mutiny at Spithead. He was killed soon afterwards in action.
Alexander Hood, younger brother of Samuel, Viscount Hood, entered the Navy in 1741 and was made lieutenant in 1746. During the Seven Year War he served in the Mediterranean and under Hawke in the Channel. He was made captain in 1756 and, after further service in the Channel and in the Mediterranean, was promoted to rear-admiral in 1780. From 1784 to 1790 he was a Member of Parliament for Bridgwater, after which he sat for Buckingham until 1796. In 1787 he was promoted to vice-admiral and in 1794 to admiral. In that year he was appointed second-in-command of the Channel Fleet, under Lord Howe, and took part in the battle of the First of June, after which he was given an Irish peerage. In the following year when Howe was ashore because of ill-health, he won a partial victory over the French Fleet. For this action, he was raised to the peerage of Great Britain. When Howe finally retired in 1797, Hood was made Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet. In 1800 he was relieved by St. Vincent and accepted no further active command. He was created a viscount in the same year.
Milne entered the Navy in 1779 and served in the Canada until the end of the American War in the Channel and the West Indies. During the peace he was employed in merchant ships, among them the East Indiaman, General Eliott, 1788 to 1790. At the out-break of war, 1793, he went in the Boyne to the West Indies and subsequently joined the BLANCHE, in which ship he earned promotion to lieutenant for capturing La Pique in 1794. He became commander and captain in 1795 and was appointed to the command of LA PIQUE in 1796. After two years service in the West Indies and the Channel, Milne, whilst taking La Seine, lost LA PIQUE in action off Brittany and returned to the West Indies in LA SEINE. On renewal of the war in 1803, he was Commander-in-Chief at Leith until 1808, after which he had a period ashore in command of the SEA FENCIBLES. He was then appointed to the Channel Fleet in the IMPETUEUX, 1811 to 1812, and to the VENERABLE, 1812 to 1813. From 1813 to 1814, when he became a rear-admiral, he was in North America in the Bulwark. Milne was Commander-in-Chief of the Halifax Station, 1816 to 1819, but before he departed, served as second-in-command to Lord Exmouth (q.v.) at the battle of Algiers, 1816. He was made a vice-admiral in 1825 and an admiral in 1841. His only further service was as Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, 1842 to 1845, and he died during his journey home to Scotland.