Walter Kerr

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Admiral Lord Walter Kerr (1895)

Lord Walter Talbot Kerr , GCB , PC , DL (born September 28, 1839 in Newbattle Abbey , Midlothian , Scotland ; † May 12, 1927 in Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire , England ) was a British naval admiral in the Royal Navy , who served among other things between 1899 and in 1904 was First Sea Lord .

Life

Family and naval officer

Lord Walter Talbot Kerr was the sixth of seven children of John Kerr, 7th Marquess of Lothian and his wife Cecil Chetwynd Kerr, Marchioness of Lothian, a daughter of Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 2nd Earl Talbot . His older sisters were Lady Cecil Elizabeth Kerr and Lady Alice Mary Kerr. His eldest brother William Schomberg Robert Kerr became the 8th Marquess of Lothian after his father's death on November 14, 1841, while his second oldest brother, Schomberg Henry Kerr , became 9th Marquess of Lothian after the death of his brother William, who died childless on July 6, 1870 has been. Another older brother was Major General Lord Ralph Drury Kerr, while the seventh and youngest child, Lord John Montagu Hobart Kerr, died at the age of thirteen.

Sea captain Kerr was in command of the training ship HMS Agincourt between October 1874 and August 1875 .

After visiting the Radley College Walter Kerr joined in August 1853 as a midshipman in the Royal Navy and took from 1854 to 1855 at the Crimean War in part. In August 1855 he was promoted to midshipman . After being on the suppression of the Indian uprising of 1857 had participated, he was on September 5, 1859 Lieutenant Commander (Lieutenant) transported. In the following years he found numerous uses as a naval officer and in 1868 received the silver medal of the Royal Humane Society for the rescue of a person in distress . On April 3, 1868 he was also promoted to frigate captain (Commander) and on November 30, 1872 to captain at sea (captain) . Between October 1874 and August 1875 he took over the post of commander of the training ship HMS Agincourt and was then in command of the armored frigate HMS Minotaur from August 1875 to November 1877 .

After other assignments, Kerr was briefly in command of the steam frigate HMS Inconstant between February and March 1880 and then in command of the ironclad HMS Alexandra from March 1880 to November 1881 . He then served from March 1881 to March 1885 as the commanding captain of the Medway Steam Reserve and between April and June 1885 as the commander of the ironclad HMS Devastation .

Promotion to Fleet Admiral and First Sea Lord

Lord Walter Kerr in a cartoon by Leslie Ward aka "Spy" in Vanity Fair magazine (November 8, 1900)

In July 1885 Lord Walter Kerr became private secretary of the First Lord of the Admiralty (First Lord of the Admiralty) , George Francis Hamilton , and held this office with a brief interruption between January and August 1886 until November 1889. At the same time he was between 1887 and 1888 also Navy adjutant ( Naval Aide-de-camp ) to Queen Victoria . On January 1, 1889 his promotion was made to Rear Admiral (Rear Admiral) . In April 1890 he took over the post of Deputy Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet (Second-in-Command, Mediterranean Fleet ) and held it until April 1892. He then moved back to the Admiralty and was initially responsible for food, supplies, transport and medical care between August 1892 and November 1893 as Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Supplies . He then acted from November 1893 to May 1895 as Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel and as such was responsible for personnel issues in the Royal Navy. In this use, it was on February 20, 1895, Vice Admiral (Vice Admiral) transported.

In May 1895, Vice Admiral Lord Walter Talbot Kerr replaced Vice Admiral Robert O'Brien FitzRoy as Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron and remained in this position until June 1897, when Vice Admiral Henry Frederick Stephenson succeeded him. In 1896 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB). He was from May to August 1899 again Second Sea Lord (Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel) before it in August 1899 as successor to Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick Richards First Sea Lord (First Sea Lord) . He held this post for more than five years until October 1904, when he was replaced by Admiral John Fisher . In this use he was promoted to Admiral on March 21, 1900 and on June 26, 1902 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB). He was last on 16 June 1904. Fleet Admiral (Admiral of the Fleet) transported. He was also a magistrate (justice of the peace) and Deputy Lieutenant of the county Derbyshire .

Family and offspring

Lord Walter Talbot Kerr died in Melbourne Hall mansion .

Lord Walter Talbot Kerr married Lady Amabel Frederica Henrietta Cowper, daughter of George Augustus Frederick Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper, and Anne Florence Weddell, Baroness Lucas, daughter of Thomas de Gray, 2nd Earl de Gray , on November 18, 1873 .

From this marriage there were six children. The two eldest sons were Reverend Ralph Francis Kerr, superior of Brompton Priory , and Andrew William Kerr, a sea captain in the Royal Navy and father of the future Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian . The elder daughter Mary Catherine Cecil Kerr was a nun, while the second daughter Margaret Mary Kerr died unmarried and childless. The second youngest son John David Kerr was lieutenant colonel of the 5th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters , while the youngest son of Philip Walter Kerr as a captain in the Royal Field Artillery on the First World War took part.

Lord Walter Talbot Kerr died on May 12, 1927 in Melbourne Hall mansion, Derbyshire.

In his honor were the Kerr Inlet , a 1.5 km wide and icy bay on the Hillary coast of the Antarctic Ross Dependency , and Cape Kerr , a high and snow-capped cape , which is also on the Hillary coast of the Antarctic Ross Dependency , named.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS , p. 13
  2. ↑ ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS , p. 12
  3. ↑ ROYAL NAVY warships , p 116
  4. ↑ ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS , p. 22
  5. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SENIOR APPOINTMENTS , p. 111
  6. ↑ ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS , p. 21
  7. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SENIOR APPOINTMENTS , p. 16
  8. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SENIOR APPOINTMENTS , p. 147
  9. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SENIOR APPOINTMENTS , p. 11
  10. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SENIOR APPOINTMENTS , p. 7
  11. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SENIOR APPOINTMENTS , p. 140
  12. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SENIOR APPOINTMENTS , p. 7
  13. ↑ ROYAL NAVY SENIOR APPOINTMENTS , p. 5
predecessor Office successor
Frederick Richards First Sea Lord
1899–1904 		John Fisher
personal data
SURNAME Kerr, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kerr, Lord Walter Talbot (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Admiral and First Sea Lord
DATE OF BIRTH September 28, 1839
PLACE OF BIRTH Newbattle Abbey , Midlothian , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1927
Place of death Melbourne Hall, Derbyshire , England