Difference between revisions of "Reginald Hugh Spencer Bacon"
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− | |[[Dover Patrol|Vice-Admiral Commanding, Dover Patrol]]|[[Horace Lambert Alexander Hood|The Hon. Horace L. A. Hood]]|1915 – 1918|[[Roger John Brownlow Keyes, First Baron Keyes|Roger J. B. Keyes]] | + | |[[Dover Patrol (Royal Navy)|Vice-Admiral Commanding, Dover Patrol]]|[[Horace Lambert Alexander Hood|The Hon. Horace L. A. Hood]]|1915 – 1918|[[Roger John Brownlow Keyes, First Baron Keyes|Roger J. B. Keyes]] |
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Revision as of 23:55, 13 November 2012
Admiral SIR Reginald Hugh Spencer Bacon, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O., Royal Navy, Retired (6 September, 1863 – 9 June, 1947) commanded the Dover Patrol from 1915-17 and embarked on a post-retirement career as a naval historian.
Early Life
Bacon was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant with seniority of 20 August, 1883.
Having entered the navy in 1878 Bacon chose to specialise in a variety of areas dealing with innovations: from ship design to electricity to submarines (he conducted the first Royal Navy trials) to mining.
He was promoted to the rank of Commander on 30 June, 1895.[1] He was thirty-one years, nine months and twenty-four days old at promotion. He later claimed that he was the youngest of the lieutenants promoted in that batch.[2] However, he was the second-youngest, after Arthur W. Waymouth.
For his services in Benin he was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) on 25 May, 1897.[3]
Captain
Bacon was promoted to the rank of Captain on 30 June, 1900.[4]
On 23 March, 1901, Bacon was appointed to President for "Special Service" at the Admiralty,[5] for, in his own words, "service with the submarine boats, on which work had already been commenced."[6] He served on the staff of the Controller, with an office at the Admiralty.[7]
He was appointed command of Dreadnought on 2 July, 1906.[8]
Bacon was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (C.V.O.) on 3 August, 1907.[9]
In May, 1907, it was announced that Bacon would succeed Jellicoe as D.N.O.[10] He was appointed to the Admiralty for temporary service on 12 August, 1907, and became D.N.O. on 25 August.[11]
Rear-Admiral & Retirement
On 12 July, 1909, he was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral, vice Dare.[12] In accordance with the provisions of the Order in Council of 8 December, 1903, he was placed on the Retired List at his own request on 25 November.[13]
By the year of his resignation from the navy - 1909 - he had reached the rank of Rear-Admiral, and settled into an entirely appropriate civilian career as Managing Director of the Coventry Ordnance Works, having served his last two years as Director of Naval Ordnance.
Great War
The outbreak of war in August, 1914 brought Bacon's recall to active service and following a brief stint on the Western Front (using his own company's weaponry - a howitzer of his own design) as a Colonel, Second Commandant in the Royal Marine Artillery was handed command of the Dover Patrol the following April. He relinquished his temporary commission as Colonel, Second Commandant on 13 April, 1915.[14] On 15 July, 1915, he was advanced to the rank of Vice-Admiral on the Retired List.[15] Bacon's task was apparently simple: to prevent German U-boat access to the English Channel, and to facilitate the despatch of supplies, both men and materials, across to the Western Front in France.
On 1 January, 1916, he was appointed an Additional Member of the Second Class, or Knight Commander, in the Military Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (K.C.B.).[16] On 15 August he was appointed a Knight Commander in the Royal Victorian Order (K.C.V.O.) after the King visited the Army in France.[17]
The Chief of the Admiralty War Staff of the time, later Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff, Sir Henry F. Oliver, later recalled, "Bacon was most energetic and tireless, he slept in his Office and when anything happened at night in his command and I telephoned[,] the Secretary would tell me he had gone afloat. He had the most exacting and arduous command of and Flag Officer in the War[,] and was very badly treated at the end of it. Keyes intrigued against him and when Lord Westerwemyss [sic] became 1st Sea Lord[,] pushed him out and supplanted him."[18]
Bacon was promoted to the rank of Admiral on the Retired List on 1 September, 1918.[19]
Aftermath
In September, 1918 Bacon was made full Admiral; he retired six months later in the wake of the armistice. It was at this stage that Bacon determined to try his hand as a naval historian. Aside from his Dover Patrol memoir he also published biographies of controversial Admirals Fisher and Jellicoe (whose conduct at the Battle of Jutland Bacon resolutely supported; the former also happened to be a close friend).
Bacon died in 1947.
Assessment
In his 1946 memoirs, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry F. Oliver wrote that, "Bacon was about the ablest and cleverest Officer I have ever known."[20]
Footnotes
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 26647. p. 4233. 26 July, 1895.
- ↑ Bacon. From 1900 Onwards. p. 22.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 26856. p. 2928. 25 May, 1897.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 27211. p. 4433. 17 July, 1900.
- ↑ Bacon Service Record. ADM 196/42. f. 166.
- ↑ Bacon. From 1900 Onwards. p. 50.
- ↑ Ibid. f. 54.
- ↑ John Roberts. The Battleship Dreadnought. p. 18.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 28048. p. 5390. 6 August, 1907.
- ↑ "Naval and Military Intelligence" (Official Appointments and Notices). The Times. Thursday, 30 May, 1907. Issue 38346, col F, p. 5.
- ↑ Bacon Service Record. ADM 196/42. f. 262.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 28271. p. 5463. 16 July, 1909.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 28313. p. 9123. 30 November, 1909.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 29136. p. 3828. 20 April, 1915.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 29236. p. 7073. 20 July, 1915.
- ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 29423. p. 80. 31 December, 1915.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 29711. p. 8149. 18 August, 1916.
- ↑ Oliver Memoirs. II. pp. 170-171.
- ↑ The London Gazette: no. 30887. p. 10549. 6 September, 1918.
- ↑ Oliver. II. f. 33.
Bibliography
- "Adm. Sir Reginald Bacon" (Obituaries). The Times. Tuesday, 10 June, 1947. Issue 50783, col E, p. 6.
- Bacon, Admiral Sir Reginald (1925). A Naval Scrapbook: First Part, 1877–1900. London: Hutchinson & Co..
- Bacon, Admiral Sir Reginald (1940). From 1900 Onward. London: Hutchinson & Co..
Service Records
- The National Archives. ADM 196/99.
- The National Archives. ADM 196/87.
- The National Archives. ADM 196/42.
- The National Archives. ADM 196/20.
Naval Appointments | ||
Preceded by Sir John R. Jellicoe |
Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes 1907 – 1909 |
Succeeded by A. Gordon H. W. Moore
|
Preceded by The Hon. Horace L. A. Hood |
Vice-Admiral Commanding, Dover Patrol 1915 – 1918 |
Succeeded by Roger J. B. Keyes
|
- People
- People (UK)
- 1863 births
- 1947 deaths
- H.M.S. Britannia (Training Ship) Entrants of January, 1877
- Torpedo Officers
- Torpedo Officers (UK)
- Inspecting Captains of Submarines
- Naval Assistants to the First Sea Lord
- Captains of H.M.S. Dreadnought (1906)
- Directors of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes (Royal Navy)
- Vice-Admirals, Dover Patrol
- Senior Naval Officers, Dover
- Colonels, Second Commandant, Royal Marine Artillery