Difference between revisions of "Augustus Willington Shelton Agar"

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Captain Augustus Willington Shelton Agar, V.C., D.S.O. (4 January, 1890 – 30 December, 1968) served in the Royal Navy. For much of his career he appears to have gone by the Christian name "Augustine".

For a man who would deliver such personal fortitude in action, his evaluations as a young sailor during the Great War are amongst the most uniformly abysmal to be found.

Life & Career

Born in Kandy, Ceylon, the thirteenth child of J. S. Agar, a tea planter. Agar entered Britannia in May, 1905 after schooling at Framlingham College and Eastman's Naval Academy.^[1] In March 1905 he passed 12th in order of merit out of 36 successful candidates at the competitive examination for Naval Cadetships.^[2] Accordingly on 15 May he joined the Britannia. He gained two months' sea time on passing out in September 1906, and placed 34th out of 41 cadets. He took a third class in the Part I examination, and second classes in Seamanship and Gunnery, and Navigation and Steam. He did take the second prize in Divinity, however.^[3]

On 18 April 1911 he was appointed to Blake for the destroyer Ruby. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 30 June 1912 and reappointed. On 17 May 1913 he was appointed to President for a course at the Central Flying School. His valedictory report from Lieutenant and Commander Lawrie read "Capable when he tries but at times shows lack of interest." Agar qualified as a pilot on a Short Biplane on 25 June, receiving Royal Aero Club Pilot's Certificate No. 533. In August he was noted as "Failed to qualify as pilot of Flying Wing. To be appointed to Sea Service." By his own account had written off three aircraft.^[4] An appointment to the Hardy was cancelled, as was one as First Lieutenant of the Hecla, and on 29 August he was appointed to the battleship battleship Hibernia In early 1915 the Director of Air Department applied for his transfer to the Royal Naval Air Service it was decided that his services could not be spared. In May 1916 Captain Haggard evaluated Agar as "slight knowledge of French. Clever but unreliable, apt to do foolish things, deaf in a ear." On giving up command in November Haggard again recorded, "Clever but unreliable."

In early 1918, Lieutenant-Commander Parker wrote that Agar was "Hardworking at times but spasmodic. Has on several occasions shown a lamentable want of tact when most needed. Of violent temper & somewhat conceited but has good knowledge at the bottom. Will do better when he gets a little older."

On 17 June, 1919, Agar led two Coastal Motor Boats in infiltrating Kronstadt harbour to attack Bolshevik naval assets. When mechanical difficulties afflicted one of the boats, Agar continued his mission in C.M.B. 4 and succeeded in torpedoing and sinking the protected cruiser Oleg despite suffering a motor breakdown that obliged him to stop at a breakwater to effect repairs for fully twenty minutes while in clear view of the enemy. Agar was awarded the Victoria Cross for his audacious success.

Agar was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander on 30 June, 1920.^[5]

Agar was promoted to the rank of Commander on 31 December, 1925.^[6]

Agar was promoted to the rank of Captain on 31 December, 1933.^[7]

Admiral Sir Edward R. G. R. Evans noted in 1939:

This Officer has only been under my command in harbour & although I have done my best to assess him, it is rather on my knowledge of him during my career, when I have seen him & his work, that I have done so. He is definitely impulsive, but a good leader & has moral courage. Rather inclined to be dramatic but has plenty of character & takes correction & advice well.

According to his service record, in 1939 he applied to retire and then withdrew the application. He makes no mention of the incident in his memoirs.

Second World War

Rear-Admiral Lancelot E. Holland wrote of him in 1940:

An officer with rather an unusual temperament. He is at his best in war time and is always eager to take on any enterprise or hard work. Inclined to be obstinate but I have always found him to be most loyal and helpful.

On 25 July he was appointed temporarily in command of Malcolm and Captain (D) of the Sixteenth Destroyer Flotilla, vice Halsey. He was superseded the following month and appointed to the Admiralty in August. By his own account this work comprised a committee on black out arrangements and a planning committee under Rear-Admiral Ion B. B. Tower examining defence against invasion of the United Kingdom and Singapore. He was then appointed in charge of Operation Lucid, a plan to destroy invasion barges in German-occupied French ports. The operation was postponed a number of times in September and October before being cancelled. He later lamented that it had "lost me my place in the queue of Captains waiting for regular sea-commands, so I was again available for odd jobs that came along".^[8] This is borne out by the fact that his appointment to command the battleship Ramillies on 26 September was cancelled.

On 25 November he was appointed Chief Staff Officer to Rear-Admiral, Coastal Forces. On 27 July 1941 Rear-Admiral Piers K. Kekewich wrote on Agars leaving the command:

This officer has worked for some eight months with me & he has thrown all his energies into that work. He is essentially a man of action & as such he has undoubtedly found serving under a retired Officer with an R.N.V.R. staff to be trying. He has the gift of a vivid imagination; but the ideas sometimes come so quick that he does not have time to put them all into operation. He has the highest ideal, but sometimes fails to temper them with a realisation of the practical possibility. He has a great personal charm, & a manner so courteous that those who do not understand him may think him unsociable. His right place is on the Bridge of one of H.M. Ships seeking the enemy, and it is there that his great potentialities will find their fullest scope. (I have shown this report to Captain Agar).

He was given command of the heavy cruiser Dorsetshire on 8 August. Agar was mentioned in despatches on 8 April 1942 for good services when Dorsetshire and Cornwall were sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Indian Ocean. On 11 June Vice-Admiral Sir Geoffrey S. Arbuthnot, Commander-in-Chief East Indies, wrote:

Agar is an enthusiast, gifted with his pen, well read, artistic. Most definitely not cast in the usual mould of Naval Officer, without serious disparagement I should describe him as slightly eccentric. In an emergency an outstanding leader of men, but in every day affairs his seniors note the slightly eccentric streak in his make-up and it is this which makes it difficult for them to place entire reliance in him. He had a good ship in DORSETSHIRE. Age & responsibility should bring out the best in this gallant officer.

In October Admiral Sir James F. Somerville reported:

I did not have opportunity, during the short period this Officer was under my orders, to assess his qualities under Section II. His gallantry and determination are unquestionable but he appears to me to be very highly strung, rather temperamental and inclined to be erratic. I shall require more experience of this officer before I could recommend him as being fit for Flag Rank.

He had returned home in May and in July he was appointed to Belfast for command of the aircraft carrier Unicorn then under construction at Harland and Wolff. However, on 16 December he was appointed to President for Special Service, essentially unemployed but on Full Pay, and on 12 January 1943 he was placed on the Retired List. Agar himself recalled:

In the Navy we call this "swallowing the anchor"; amongst the lower deck ratings they call it "swallowing the hook", when they go ashore for a "full-due." Sooner or later it has to come to us all. I am not all that ambitious so had no regrets. I have had a good innings, saw much, made many real friends, and was spared a great deal of worry and hardship which others suffered. It would have been nice to have had one more sea command before the War ended, but I could not complain about that.^[9]

John R. Bullen has written in Agar's Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry that "his divorce may have led to prejudice in certain quarters", implying that he was not promoted because of this and providing no evidence whatsoever to support the claim.^[10] It is clear from his service records and his own memoirs that his undoubted courage to one side, he had suffered much physically over the years and that Captain was likely a natural ceiling for him in the Service. That there was no prejudice against him is clear from the fact that on 5 May he was appointed to the dual positions of Captain and President of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, the latter usually held by a Flag Officer, and given the rank of Commodore, Second Class. He recalled:

I will always be grateful to A.V.A. (now Lord Hillsborough) for giving me this, as the next best thing to a sea command afloat. It meant, besides many other things, that Ina was able to share it with me, as the appointment carried with it a charming official house; added to which I have always loved the historical setting, atmosphere and beauty of that lovely place.^[11]

He retained his command until 30 September 1946. He was allowed to keep the rank of Commodore when he contested Greenwich for the Conservative Party in the 1945 General Election. The Labour Party gained the seat with a majority of 10,498: 22,078 votes to Agar's 11,580.^[12]

Retirement

Agar died on 30 December 1968 aged 78.^[13] Ina Agar died on 3 December 1992.^[14]

See Also

Bibliography

Footnotes