Oswald Moreton Frewen

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Commander (retired) Oswald Moreton Frewen, R.N. (11 January, 1887 – 7 December, 1958) served in the Royal Navy.

Despite what he termed his own "juniority", his sympathy for John Jellicoe's situation in the mushrooming controversy over the Battle of Jutland would place Frewen in a position to exchange letters and information on the proponents of the Naval Staff Appreciation and other documentary efforts he regarded as manifestly unfair.

Life & Career

Born in Sussex the son of Moreton Frewen, Esq., J.P., Frewen gained three and a half months on passing out of the training ship Britannia on 15 September, 1903.[1]

He was appointed to Hannibal, Prince George and Bulwark until December, 1906. In July 1907, received a temporary appointment in the first-class torpedo boat T.B. 4, and returned to her on loan for a cruise in the early summer of 1908. He spenr a half year further in the armoured cruiser Roxburgh before leaving on 1 February, 1909 to seek qualification in navigating duties at Dryad, obtaining them on 11 June with 1834 of 2500 marks. He took his new credentials off to a series of ships, starting with Magnificent and then the new battlecruiser Invincible as assistant navigator, in mid 1909.[2]

Great War

Frewen served as navigating officer in Lookout from 1 August, 1914 to 15 March, 1915 as she operated in Home and Atlantic Waters as part of the Third Destroyer Flotilla. He then joined the light cruiser Comus of the Fourth Light Cruiser Squadron, where he would remain until 9 January, 1917.[3]

An appointment to Bacchante that began on 4 February, 1917 was abbreviated when he was invalided in August 1918 upon arrival in Sierra Leone, exhibiting symptoms of "climate debility and functional heart disease" when surveyed at Simonstown on the 23rd of the month. He arrived back in England aboard H.M.S. Ebro on 12 October, 1918. A bout of flu followed, but he was declared fit in January, 1919.[4]

At war's end, Frewen was placed in charge of a C. & M. Party aboard the Minotaur, where he had been appointed a month prior. He was placed on the Retired List at his own request on 16 September, 1919 and advanced to the rank of Commander on the Retired List on 11 January, 1927.[5]

World War II

Despite health complications that required frequent hospital visits, Frewen worked in Scapa Flow as Senior Naval Officer and King's Harbour Master, Scapa, based at Lyness at the shore base H.M.S. Proserpine.[6]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Frewen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51. f. 32.
  2. Frewen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51. f. 32.
  3. Frewen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51. f. 32.
  4. Frewen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51. f. 32.
  5. Frewen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51. f. 32.
  6. Frewen Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/51. f. 32.