Reginald Tyrwhitt

Reginald Tyrwhitt

Sir Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt, 1st Baronet GCB , DSO (spoken / ˈtɪrɪt /; * May 10, 1870 in Oxford , † May 30, 1951 in Sandhurst , Kent ) was a British naval officer, most recently Admiral of the Fleet , who served in the First World War commanded the Harwich Force .

Life

Tyrwhitt was born the fifth son of clergyman Richard St John Tyrwhitt, Vicar of St Mary Magdalene's Church , Oxford, and joined the training ship HMS Britannia in 1883 as a midshipman . In 1885 he was transferred to the battleship HMS Alexandra , flagship of the Mediterranean fleet , and was promoted to midshipman there . In 1888 he was on the Corvette HMS Calypso of the Training Squadron and the following year on the armored cruiser HMS Australia . As a sub-lieutenant he came in 1890 on the HMS Ajax , the lead ship of the Ajax class of battleships. While serving on the brig HMS pilot in Plymouth , he was promoted to lieutenant in 1892. He spent the next three years on the HMS Cleopatra screw corvette at the North America and West Indies station .

In January 1896 he received command of the destroyer HMS Hart and in the same year switched to the cruiser HMS Surprise , which was in service in the Mediterranean. In December 1899, Tyrwhitt came to the North America and West Indies station's HMS Indefatigable . In January 1903 he was promoted to commander and took command of the cruiser HMS Aurora . From 1904 to 1908 he was employed as a commander of the destroyer HMS Waveney and the reconnaissance cruiser HMS Attentive and HMS Skirmisher . After being promoted to captain in June 1908, Tyrwhitt took over the 4th destroyer flotilla in Portsmouth with the cruiser HMS Topaze as the lead ship. From 1910 to 1912 he was flag captain on the cruisers HMS Bacchante and HMS Good Hope in the Mediterranean fleet. He then returned to the Home Fleet , where he commanded the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla from the flotilla commander HMS Bellona . In 1914 he became commodore of all destroyers in the Home Fleet.

At the beginning of the First World War, Tyrwhitt received command of the Harwich Force, which consisted of the 1st and 3rd destroyer flotilla, and which he led from the light cruiser HMS Amethyst . With the Harwich Force he distinguished himself in the first major naval battle of the war, the naval battle near Heligoland on August 28, 1914, where his flagship was the newly commissioned light cruiser HMS Arethusa . In January 1915, the Harwich Force was involved in the battle on Dogger Bank, where they again worked closely with the battlecruisers of Admiral David Beatty . In March 1916, Tyrwhitt's fleet escorted the HMS Vindex seaplane tender in the attack on the Tondern airship hangars. In April 1916, during the German bombardment of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth , Tyrwhitt's fleet was again used to force the German attack to be abandoned.

During the Battle of the Skagerrak (May 31 / June 1, 1916) Tyrwhitt set sail with five cruisers and 19 destroyers on his own initiative, but was ordered back to port by the Admiralty . On August 19, 1916, he met the deep-sea fleet on a new advance into the North Sea, which, however, turned around without Tyrwhitt having come to the torpedo attack. He remained a commodore of the Harwich Force for the entire duration of the war and took part in several smaller skirmishes in the southern North Sea, as well as in the raid on Zeebrugge and Ostend . In 1918 he was promoted to acting Rear Admiral . At the end of the war, he received the German submarine fleet to be delivered in accordance with the armistice conditions in Harwich. In December 1919 he received the hereditary dignity of baronet , of Terschelling and of Oxford in the County of Oxford , and permanent promotion to Rear Admiral.

In the following years Tyrwhitt served in Gibraltar , among other places , as commander of the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean, as superintendent in Rosyth and as commander-in-chief, Coast of Scotland . In 1925 he was promoted to Vice Admiral , Commander of the China Station . In 1930, Tyrwhitt was named Commander-in-Chief, The Nore , after having been promoted to full admiral the previous year . In 1932 he became the King's First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp . He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1934. Tyrwhitt served temporarily in the Home Guard during World War II . He was married with a son, his heir to St. John Tyrwhitt (1905–1961), and two daughters.

literature

• TA Heathcote: British Admirals of the Fleet, 1734-1995. Pen and Sword, 2002, p. 243 ff.
• Alfred Temple Patterson: Tyrwhitt of the Harwich force: The life of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt. Macdonald & Jane's, London 1973.