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Admiral SIR Frederic Charles Dreyer, G.B.E., K.C.B. (8 January, 1878 – 11 December, 1956) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the First World War. He is chiefly known as the inventor of the Dreyer Fire Control Table, a fire control device which in varying forms equipped the majority of British dreadnoughts from 1911 to 1948. Dreyer, the son of the Danish-born astronomer J. L. E. Dreyer, joined the navy in 1891 and specialised in gunnery duties. In 1903 he fell under the wing of Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur K. Wilson. He was highly regarded within the Navy as its foremost gunnery expert, but his personality and determination to exonerate the Board of Admiralty of which he was a member of all blame during the Invergordon Mutiny presented an opportunity for his detractors to sideline him.

Early life and career

Frederic Charles Dreyer was born on 8 January, 1878, in Parsonstown (now Birr) in the King's County, Ireland (now County Offaly). His father was Danish-born John Louis Emil Dreyer, astronomer to the Fourth Earl of Rosse. When he was eight months old the Dreyer family moved to Dunsink near Dublin upon John Dreyer's appointment to the Dunsink Observatory. In August, 1882, John Dreyer was appointed Director of the Armagh Observatory and the family moved to Ulster. He was educated with his two brothers, John and George, at home by governesses until he was sent to the Royal School, Armagh. In 1890 Dreyer "expressed a strong desire to become a naval officer" and his father was able to secure a nomination from the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord George Hamilton. He passed the entrance examination in June, 1891 and on 15 July 1891 was appointed to the training ship Britannia at Dartmouth.^[1]

After "a grand time" in Britannia he passed out with First Classes in all subjects in July, 1893.^[2] He was rated Midshipman on 15 July, 1893, having gained twelve months' time (service) in Britannia.^[3] On 12 September he was appointed to the battleship Anson which was recommissioning for service in the Mediterranean Fleet. Anson left Chatham on 14 October for Malta. The usual drill consisted of rigging torpedo net defence, sailing races and occasional target practice and torpedo firings. At his first annual rifle practice Dreyer was recognised as a potential marksman and joined the ship's rifle team. At a rifle meeting in March 1895 he competed against a number of others in a 200-yard rapid-fire contest, and drew with the Commander of the flagship, Commander John Jellicoe.^[4] Dreyer recounted in his memoirs,

Every time the targets appeared there was an outburst of rapid firing, except from Commander Jellicoe. He fired one shot each time—a well-aimed shot. I could see from the splash of each bullet in the butt that he was hitting his target.

When he had done this on seven occasions, firing each round with the utmost coolness and precision, I waited in anxiety, relaising that if his target appeared an eighth time he would be the winner. It just failed to do so. Commander Jellicoe and Midshipman Dreyer tied, each with seven hits. What a lesson! Jellicoe had fired to hit, not merely in the hope of hitting. I never forgot this, my first meeting with Jellicoe, and the first of many lessons from him.^[5]

On 27 May 1898, Dreyer was confirmed in the rank of Sub-Lieutenant, dated 15 January, 1897.^[6] He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 15 July.^[7]

Commander

Dreyer was promoted to the rank of Commander in the half yearly promotions of 31 December 1907.^[8]

Jellicoe, now a Vice-Admiral appointed to command the Atlantic Fleet, wrote to Dreyer offering him the position of Flag Commander. Jellicoe had also written to Dreyer's captain, J. B. Eustace. "I told him I was loth to leave the Vanguard, but since the appointment would lead to others, I told him I would like to accept it. He agreed, and Commander E. O. Ballantyne was appointed to relieve me."^[9] He was appointed to Jellicoe's flagship Prince of Wales on 20 December, 1910 and from 19 December, 1911 he served in the new dreadnought Hercules, appointments which established their "long and close connection which has been so valuable to me" (Jellicoe). A midshipman in Hercules, Stewart Arnold Pears (later Rear-Admiral), later wrote:

Dreyer, as a Commander, was of a contrasting type [to Jellicoe]. Tall, with a large head and brain, he was intolerant of lesser men. He would "fly off the handle" not just over a mistake, which might be understandable, but over the slightest hesitation in carrying out an often complicated instruction. He seemed to expect nothing but idiocy from his junior staff and while we admired his ability and devotion to his task we kept out of his way as much as we could. I remember being used as a "living" blast gauge before such things were invented. He had a wife and family but I do not recall any sight or sign of their existence during the year or more that I served in the same ship with him before the war. Later, my wife and I got to know them well and we have been in contact with one or another until quite recently. Meanwhile I encountered a mellowed Dreyer from time to time; on the last occasion before his death we reminisced over the early days in the friendliest manner.^[10]

On 30 June 1913 Dreyer was promoted to the rank of Captain in the half yearly promotions.^[11]

In the King's Birthday Honours of 22 June 1914 Dreyer was appointed a Companion of the Civil Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.^[12]

While in Orion, Sub-Lieutenant (later Admiral Sir) Angus Cunninghame Graham wrote of Dreyer:

Freddy Dreyer, the Captain, was quite a different type [compared to Arbuthnot], efficient, clever, one who did much for the Navy's gunnery and who rightly rose to high rank. He could be described as a caricature of the Navy's stock notion of a gunnery officer, an idea which does not fit most gunnery officers whom I have known, who were nice, able, normal people. Freddy did not inspire the lovable awe in which we held Sir Robert. He was obviously scared of his Admiral and seemed unwilling to assert his rights as a captain of his own ship in which Sir Robert was only a rather formidable lodger.^[13]

First World War

After being mentioned in Jellicoe's Jutland Despatch, Dreyer was appointed a Companion of the Military Division of the Order of the Bath.^[14] In 1917 he was awarded the Russian Order of St Anne, Second Class (with Swords).^[15]

Director of Naval Ordnance

Due to his efforts in pushing through the design and production of new shells for the Grand Fleet's dreadnoughts, Beatty in a letter to Wemyss on 3 June described Dreyer as "a most exceptional man". Having learnt that Dreyer was to be given a sea-going command, he urged both Geddes and Wemyss that Dreyer ought to remain at the Admiralty because "there is nobody to take his place."^[16]

Post-war service

For "valuable services rendered during the War" Dreyer was appointed Commander of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 1 January 1919.^[17] Also in recognition of his services was the award of the American Distinguished Service Medal,^[18] Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, Second Class.^[19]

Dreyer was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral on 12 December 1923, vice Rear-Admiral William J. S. Alderson.^[20]

Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff

Dreyer succeeded Rear-Admiral Arthur K. Waistell as Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff on 9 October, 1924.^[21]

Admiral Commanding, Battle Cruiser Squadron

[[File:HMS Hood by Edward Tufnell.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Dreyer's flagship, H.M.S. Hood.

Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff

On 1 March, 1929 Dreyer was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral, vice Vice-Admiral A. P. Addison.^[22]

Invergordon

After the "mutiny" heads began to roll. Captain J. F. C. Patterson of Hood was relieved at the first opportunity. Captain R. M. Bellairs of Rodney and Captain A. D. H. Dibben of Adventure weren't given another sea-going command when their ships paid off. Captain F. B. Watson of Nelson went to command the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy as planned and retired afterwards. Captain C. B. Prickett of Norfolk was denied command of H.M.S. Excellent, the Navy's foremost gunnery school. Rear-Admiral J. C. W. Henley was retired on promotion to Vice-Admiral and Rear-Admiral C. V. Usborne retired after his term as Director of Naval Intelligence ended.^[23]

The question of Kelly's successor I approach with great diffidence. I have the greatest admiration for Dreyer's technical, professional and administrative abilities, but I do not think he should be selected for this command under the circumstances. He is not very human and for some reason he has lost the confidence of a good many of his juniors and I believe his selection for the Atlantic Fleet would be unpopular with officers and men.^[24]

The Home Ports Commanders-in-Chief eventually agreed that Dreyer should be sent to command the China Station after his term as D.C.N.S. ended. One of only two contributions from Field on Invergordon which were recorded concerned Dreyer. The First Sea Lord emphasised Dreyer's exceptional service record and his tenure as D.C.N.S., but the three admirals remained firm and Dreyer was denied command of the Atlantic Fleet.^[25] Dreyer himself recounted in his memoirs that he had been prevented "from becoming C.-in-C. Atlantic Fleet, which deprived me of subsequent chances of promotion."^[26]

In the King's Birthday Honours of 3 June 1932 Dreyer was promoted Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath and knighted.^[27]

On 31 December, 1932 Dreyer was promoted to the rank of Admiral, vice Admiral Bertram S. Thesiger.^[28]

China Station

In the King's Coronation Honours, Dreyer was advanced to Knight Grand Cross Commander of the Military Division of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) on 11 May, 1937.^[29]

Dreyer was placed on the Retired List on 15 May 1939.^[30]

Second World War service

Upon the outbreak of the Second World War in September, 1939 Dreyer offered his services to the Admiralty as a Commodore of Convoys. His offer was accepted and he attended a course at the Admiralty "on the organisation for forming convoys at various ports and the orders, manuals, and signal books issued for the conduct of convoys at sea, including their defence by ships and aircraft of the Royal Navy and of Coastal Command. The course also dealt with the installation of weapons, life-saving rafts, and bridge protection, the supply of signalling gear, smoke-making apparatus, the fitting of communications from bridges to engine-rooms, the training of guns' crews in merchant ships, and other matters." A dozen other retired admirals took the course at the same time. Dreyer was appointed a Commodore, Second Class in the Royal Naval Reserve on 15 September.^[31] Accompanied by his signal staff of three Royal Navy signalmen he sailed with his first convoy from Southend-on-Sea for Liverpool on 13 October, and proceeded to St Johns, Newfoundland on 25 October in command of Convoy O.B. 25.^[32]

Retirement

Dreyer died on Tuesday 11 December at Winchester aged seventy-eight years old.^[33] His funeral took place at Winchester Cathedral on Saturday, 17 December. His coffin was carried to the Cathedral on a gun carriage and escorted by a party from H.M.S. Excellent. The pallbearers were Admirals of the Fleet Sir Charles Forbes, Lord Cunningham and Sir Arthur Power, Admirals Sir Wilfred French, Sir Vaughan Monroe and Sir William Andrewes, and Vice-Admirals Sir James Pipon and Sir Richard Bell Davies. He was afterwards cremated and his ashes scattered on the sea off Portsmouth from H.M.S. Dundas.^[34] Shortly before his death, on 30 November, he had been guest of honour at a gunnery officers' dinner held at Excellent.^[35] Admiral Sir William James, who was present, wrote to The Times that those who attended "will long remember the speech of the principal guest. The younger generation then realized why Frederic Dreyer had, in his day, been such a power in the Navy."^[36] A memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields church, London, on 4 January 1957.^[37]

Admiral SIR Frederic Charles Dreyer, G.B.E., K.C.B. (8 January, 1878 – 11 December, 1956) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the First World War.

Early Life & Career

Dreyer naval officer, was born on 8 January 1878 at Parsonstown, King's county, Ireland, the second son of the Danish-born John Louis Emil Dreyer (1852–1926), then astronomer to the fourth earl of Rosse, and his wife, Katherine Hannah (d. 1923), daughter of John Tuthill, of Kilmore, co. Limerick. From the Royal School, Armagh, Dreyer entered the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1891 and in his final examinations was placed fifth in his term. He continued to obtain class 1 certificates in nearly all his courses for sub-lieutenant and lieutenant (promoted July 1898) and for gunnery lieutenant; in 1900 he was the author of How to Get a First Class in Seamanship. In 1901, on the demanding advanced course for gunnery and torpedo lieutenants at Greenwich, he came first, with honours, in his class of three; he then joined the staff of the gunnery school, Sheerness. On 26 June 1901 Dreyer married Una Maria (1876–1959), daughter of John Thomas Hallett, vicar of Bishop's Tachbrook, Warwickshire; they had three sons and two daughters.

In 1903 Dreyer became the gunnery officer of Exmouth and, after the battleship was recommissioned in 1904 as the flagship of the Home (later Channel) Fleet, gunnery adviser to Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson. For three years to 1907 the Exmouth was first in the Channel Fleet in both gunlayer's test and battle practice. In 1905 Dreyer served on the calibration committee chaired by Rear-Admiral Percy Scott and, in January 1907, joined Dreadnought for her first cruise as experimental gunnery officer. On his return he went to the Admiralty as an assistant to the director of naval ordnance (D.N.O.), Captain John Jellicoe, but was quickly selected by Sir John Fisher (on Wilson's recommendation) to advise the nucleus crews of the Home Fleet in their gunnery training. At the close of 1907 he was promoted commander and then assisted Wilson during the trials of Arthur Pollen's rangefinder mounting and plotter in Ariadne. Afterwards Dreyer returned to the DNO's department (now under Captain Reginald Bacon) until he was appointed commander of Vanguard in late 1909. A year later he was invited by Jellicoe to be his flag commander, first in Prince of Wales and, from December 1911, in Hercules, appointments which established their "long and close connection which has been so valuable to me" (Jellicoe). A midshipman in Hercules, Stewart Arnold Pears (later Rear-Admiral), later wrote:

Dreyer, as a Commander, was of a contrasting type [to Jellicoe]. Tall, with a large head and brain, he was intolerant of lesser men. He would "fly off the handle" not just over a mistake, which might be understandable, but over the slightest hesitation in carrying out an often complicated instruction. He seemed to expect nothing but idiocy from his junior staff and while we admired his ability and devotion to his task we kept out of his way as much as we could. I remember being used as a "living" blast gauge before such things were invented. He had a wife and family but I do not recall any sight or sign of their existence during the year or more that I served in the same ship with him before the war. Later, my wife and I got to know them well and we have been in contact with one or another until quite recently. Meanwhile I encountered a mellowed Dreyer from time to time; on the last occasion before his death we reminisced over the early days in the friendliest manner.^[38]

Jellicoe arranged for Dreyer to take command of the new light cruiser Amphion in 1913, and promotion to captain followed in June. Amphion was first in the whole navy in that year's gunlayers' test and first in its category at battle practice. In October 1913 Dreyer became flag captain to Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot in Orion, and in 1914 he received the civil CB for services to gunnery.

While in Orion, Sub-Lieutenant (later Admiral Sir) Angus Cunninghame Graham wrote of Dreyer:

Freddy Dreyer, the Captain, was quite a different type [compared to Arbuthnot], efficient, clever, one who did much for the Navy's gunnery and who rightly rose to high rank. He could be described as a caricature of the Navy's stock notion of a gunnery officer, an idea which does not fit most gunnery officers whom I have known, who were nice, able, normal people. Freddy did not inspire the lovable awe in which we held Sir Robert. He was obviously scared of his Admiral and seemed unwilling to assert his rights as a captain of his own ship in which Sir Robert was only a rather formidable lodger.^[39]

From 1899 onwards Dreyer had submitted a number of gunnery inventions. These were not successful until he and his elder brother, Captain John Tuthill Dreyer RA (1876–1959), who was himself a prolific inventor, put forward a device for obtaining range rates from a plot of ranges against time. This led directly to the improvised rate plot used by Wilson shortly after the trials on Ariadne had finished, and from 1908 there was open rivalry between Frederic Dreyer and Pollen. However, the Royal Navy continued to experiment with manual course-plotting and it was not until Dreyer became commander of Vanguard that he first assembled a fire control system based on standard service instruments and a range-rate plotter patented by both Dreyer brothers in 1908. In September 1910 Frederic applied for a patent on a fire control table comprising independent plots for range and bearing versus time, a dumaresq (an instrument, named after its inventor, modeling the relationship between speeds, courses, target bearing, range-rate, and deflection), and a range clock. Its novelty lay mainly in the integration of the components so that the results from the plots could be used to refine the settings of the dumaresq. The ‘original Dreyer table’ was designed and built by the firm of Elliott Brothers under the direction of Keith Elphinstone and installed in Prince of Wales in September 1911. After successful trials an order was placed for five improved Mark III tables, which incorporated manually set range and bearing clocks and a drive controlled from a gyrocompass receiver; subject to the limitations of manual working, the last feature (which was not included in Pollen's contemporary Argo clocks Marks III and IV) enabled the table to continue predicting ranges and bearings during changes of course, even if the target was obscured. The Dreyer table Mark IV (the first was installed in Iron Duke in 1914) was fully automatic, though its design was mainly the work of Elphinstone. In 1916 Dreyer was awarded £5000 for his inventions (which also included a range of tactical instruments). Although the Argo clock was superior mechanically, the automatic two-axis follower of the later Dreyer tables was equally innovative: these tables proved adaptable (in ways inconceivable for the separate and unconnected Argo clock and plotter) to new gunnery methods. The post-war Admiralty Fire Control Tables used Argo- or Ford-type variable speed drives, but their integrated design with separate plotting of ranges and bearings derived from the earlier Dreyer tables.

In 1915 Dreyer became Jellicoe's flag captain in Iron Duke. After Jutland, he and his ship's gunnery were praised in the commander-in-chief's despatches and he was appointed a military CB. He then accompanied Jellicoe to the Admiralty, initially as assistant director, anti-submarine division. From 14 February he worked with Morgan Singer to get acquainted with the officer of Director of Naval Ordnance, and later succeeded him. Proving himself "outstandingly able and of great energy and pertinacity" (Chatfield, 157), with the aid of a small committee, which included his elder brother (now colonel and eventually major-general and director of artillery), he drove through the development and supply of new and effective armour-piercing shell for the Grand Fleet, despite conflicts with the controller of armament production, Sir Vincent Raven. In 1918 he joined the naval staff as director of naval artillery and torpedoes. In 1919 he was appointed commodore and chief of staff for Jellicoe's empire mission and was made CBE. On his return Dreyer in 1920 resumed his staff duties as director of the gunnery division until he took command of the battle cruiser Repulse in 1922. He was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral (vice Alderson) on 12 December, 1923; in the following year he became Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff and was responsible for founding the Tactical School at Portsmouth. In 1927 he hoisted his flag in Hood in command of the battle-cruiser squadron (which included two aircraft-carriers). He was promoted vice-admiral in 1929 and became deputy chief of the naval staff in 1930. Thus Dreyer was a member of the board at the time of the Invergordon mutiny and had to accept that he would not, as he had hoped, be appointed commander-in-chief, Atlantic Fleet; instead, after promotion to admiral in 1932, he served as commander-in-chief, China station, from 1933 to 1936. He was promoted KCB in 1932 and GBE in 1936, and was placed on the retired list in 1939.

On the outbreak of war Dreyer immediately volunteered as a commodore, Royal Naval Reserve, of convoys. In 1940 he joined the staff of the general officer commanding-in-chief, home forces, on anti-invasion measures, and was then chairman of the Admiralty committee assessing U-boat losses. From 1941 he was a highly effective inspector of merchant navy gunnery until a temporary appointment as chief of naval air services in 1942. He briefly held the position of deputy chief of naval air equipment early in 1943 before finally returning to the retired list.

Dreyer died on 11 December 1956 at his home, Freelands, St Cross, Winchester, a year after publishing his memoirs, The Sea Heritage: a Study in Maritime Warfare. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea. All three sons and both sons-in-law were naval officers; the second son, Sir Desmond Parry Dreyer, also commanded in the Far East and subsequently became second sea lord.

Beginning with Captain Stephen Roskill, who acknowledged an antipathy (Roskill, Naval Policy, 2.130), and Professor Jon Sumida, later historians have been very critical of Dreyer himself and of his fire control tables. Yet Dreyer rate-plotting could make better use than the Argo true-course plotter of the intermittent and inaccurate target data actually available and, in battle, when conditions were comparable, German ships shot as well as or better than the British using a system of meaning ranges which was more similar in principle to Dreyer's than to any ready alternative.

At the end of the First World War, Dreyer's ability and achievements were widely praised by senior officers; Jellicoe thought him ‘one of the best captains of ships I have ever known’ (F. C. Dreyer, 238). However, he was apologetically ambitious and a disciplinarian who did not seek popularity. ‘A large man without much sense of humour’ (King-Hall, 247), he acquired a reputation as ‘one of the most outspoken of twentieth-century admirals’ (Marder, 1.35) who was also prolix on paper (Roskill, Naval Policy, 2.130); particularly in his defence of the board after Invergordon and as commander-in-chief, China (though also in early 1943), his lack of tact caused offence. Even if Dreyer's energies and ideas may have been fired by Pollen's precocious ambitions, Dreyer's offerings served the Royal Navy as well as anything Argo might have put forth, and he humbly helped postwar development seek solutions that drew upon the best ideas to be found, whether they were his or not.

Footnotes

Bibliography