Christopher John Francis Eddis

Lieutenant-Commander Christopher John Francis Eddis, R.N. (7 June, 1885 – 19 October, 1918) was an officer in the Royal Navy who would die in the final days of the war of influenza. His younger brother Paul Leathley Eddis also served in the Navy and would perish in the 1924 accidental loss of the submarine L 24.

Life & Career

The son of a reverend in Surrey, Eddis gained two months' time on passing out of Britannia.

Eddis was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 31 December, 1907.

On 29 October, 1909 the battleship Hannibal collided with Eddis's T.B. 105, severely damaging the boat.

Eddis was appointed Lieutenant & Commander of the first-class torpedo boat T.B. 11 on 19 January, 1911.

In May of 1911, Eddis was blamed for a collision between T.B. 11 and T.B. 31 while embarking men onto T.B. 11, possibly from 31. It was considered that he should have selected a more sheltered location for the operation.

Eddis was appointed in command of the destroyer Cynthia on 14 August, 1913.

Great War

On 7 July 1915, Eddis was admitted to Chatham Hospital for tonsillitis. He was fit on 20 July.

On 1 December, 1915, Eddis's Firefly was exchanging fire with Turkish shore batteries on the Tigris when she received a hit in her boiler and lost power. Eddis was wounded during this action. The gunboat had to be abandoned, and the Turks took her and used her in their own efforts in the war. An unidentified Captain recorded that Eddis "showed great ability and coolness during his period of command of Firefly especially when severely wounded on December 1st 1915." Eddis was mentioned in General Sir John Nixon's despatches, gazetted on 13 July 1916.

Eddis was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander on 31 December, 1915.

Eddis incurred Their Lordships' "grave displeasure" in the disappearance overboard of a petty officer on the night of 27/28 July, 1916.

On 26 February, 1917, the Ottomans accidentally ran their ill-gotten Firefly aground near where they had captured her from Eddis. The Turks abandoned her and she was re-captured by the British gunboat Tarantula. Eddis presently resumed command of his former gunboat, finding most of his books and papers still in his cabin!

On 4 August 1917 he called at the Admiralty and was seen in a hospital to have a foreign body removed. Only four days were allotted.

On 5 February 1918, Grasshopper, Mosquito, and Eddis's own Pigeon were escorting a convoy when the Anchor Line/Cunard troopship SS Tuscania was torpedoed and sunk in the North Channel, off Islay by UB 77 as the convoy approached Liverpool. This would be the first troopship carrying American troops sunk in WWI and the only one sunk under protection of a British convoy. The destroyers assisted in the rescue of American troops.

A telegram indicated that Eddis was sick in hospital on 15 May, 1918.

He died of influenza in October, 1918.

See Also

• Service Records
• Wikipedia

Naval Appointments
Preceded by The Hon. Guy Stopford	Captain of H.M. T.B. 105 4 Feb, 1908 – 27 Oct, 1908	Succeeded by Charles C. de M. Malan
Preceded by Edmond A. T. de P. de la Poer	Captain of H.M. T.B. 108 27 Oct, 1908 – 27 Jan, 1910	Succeeded by Alfred G. Peace
Preceded by Robert H. B. Hammond-Chambers	Captain of H.M. T.B. 11 19 Jan, 1911 – 14 Aug, 1913	Succeeded by Hugh R. Troup
Preceded by Frederic W. Clarkson	Captain of H.M.S. Cynthia 14 Aug, 1913 – 4 Aug, 1915	Succeeded by George ff. H. Lloyd
Preceded by ?	Captain of H.M.S. Firefly 4 Aug, 1915 – 1 Dec, 1915	Succeeded by John P. Bradley
Preceded by Robert P. D. Webster	Captain of H.M.S. Sawfly 27 Dec, 1915 – 15 Jan, 1916	Succeeded by George F. A. Mulock
Preceded by Henry G. Sherbrooke	Captain of H.M.S. Tarantula 11 Aug, 1916 – Sep, 1916	Succeeded by Harold F. B. Handley
Preceded by Michael K. H. Kennedy	Captain of H.M.S. Pigeon 15 May, 1917 – 19 Mar, 1918	Succeeded by Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper
Preceded by New Command	Captain of H.M.S. Scimitar 19 Mar, 1918 – 19 Oct, 1918	Succeeded by James R. C. Cavendish