Hugh Evan-Thomas

Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas

Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas GCB , KCMG , MVO (born October 27, 1862 in Gnoll, Neath , Glamorgan , † August 30, 1928 in Cople , Bedfordshire ) was a Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy . In World War I he commanded the 5th Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet during the Battle of the Skagerrak .

Life

In November 1875 he passed the Royal Navy entrance examination as 32 of 42 successful candidates and began his naval service on January 15, 1876 on the training ship Britannia and befriended the grandchildren of Queen Victoria , who had joined the Navy in September 1877 . He was appointed to service on the battleship HMS Monarch (Captain Algernon Lyons ) in the Mediterranean on December 21, 1877 and left Great Britain the following February. On March 22, 1882, Evan-Thomas was promoted to lieutenant and on December 31, 1884 to lieutenant. On January 21, 1887, he was appointed flag officer on Sir Algernon Lyon's flagship HMS Bellerophon in the West Indian station, but had to return to Great Britain on September 20, sick in Bermuda. On July 18, 1889, Evan-Thomas was assigned to the battleship Camperdown until September 10 for the annual maneuvers under Captain Richard King . His college friend Prince George was able to secure command of the protected cruiser Melampus for the upcoming maneuvers in 1892 and pushed through the appointment of Evan-Thomas as his deputy. In the collision of HMS Victoria and Camperdown on June 22, 1893 off the coast of Tripoli in Lebanon, the Mediterranean fleet lost its flagship and its Commander in Chief Sir George Tryon . Sir Michael Culme-Seymour was selected to succeed Admiral Tryon and, through Sir Hoskins' reference , Evan-Thomas was appointed his flag officer. Evan-Thomas left for Malta with Admiral Culme-Seymour in the summer of 1893 and switched to the flagship HMS Ramillies on October 17th . On July 18, 1894, Evan-Thomas married Miss Hilda Barnard at St. Savior's Church in Knightsbridge, the couple moved to Malta at the end of that year and settled in Valletta until December 1896 . Evan-Thomas was promoted to Commander on January 1, 1897, and returned to England on December 6, 1896. In November 1900, at the age of 38 , he received his first independent command of the cruiser Pioneer , which was part of the Mediterranean fleet. After two years he was promoted to captain on June 26, 1902 and transferred to HMS Victory , and assigned directly to the Admiralty of the Homefleet. In the following year he was selected as flag captain for the Canal Squadron under Lord Charles Beresford and commanded the HMS Majestic until 1904 and the Caesar until 1905 . Vice-Admiral Beresford was already acquainted with Evan-Thomas when he consulted him on the creation of a new signal book when he himself had been appointed second in command of the Mediterranean Squadron in January 1900.

In 1908 Evan-Thomas took over one of the six new battleships of the new Dreadnought class, the Bellerophon , a new class of ships created by the Sea Lord Jacky Fisher . In July 1910 he took command of the Royal Naval Dartmouth College on the Britannia . In July 1912 Evan-Thomas was promoted to Rear Admiral and in December 1913 appointed second in command of the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet. In October 1915 he finally became commander of the 5th Battleship Squadron, which consisted of 5 newly completed fast battleships of the Queen Elizabeth class, the HMS Barham was chosen as the flagship for the Admiral. On 31 May 1916 he commanded by John Jellicoe the 5th Battleship Squadron in the Battle of Jutland and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the peerage levied.

After the war he was also awarded on January 1, 1919 as Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George and on June 3, 1924 as Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

literature

• Andrew Gordon: The Rules of the Game. Jutland and British Naval Command. John Murray, London 1996, ISBN 0-7195-5076-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Knights and Dames: DOO – FOW at Leigh Rayment's Peerage