Patrick Macnamara
Rear-Admiral SIR Patrick Macnamara, K.B.E., C.B., Royal Navy (11 January, 1886 – 4 April, 1957) was an officer of the Royal Navy.
Life & Career
Macnamara was appointed to H.M.S. Excellent on 27 July, 1908, to qualify for gunnery duties, on the course beginning on 24 August.[1]
Great War
On 3 August, 1914, Macnamara was appointed to H.M.S. King Edward VII for War Staff Duties on the staff of Vice-Admiral Edward E. Bradford, Vice-Admiral Commanding the Third Battle Squadron.[2] He was appointed Gunnery Officer of H.M.S. Tiger on 9 March, 1915.[3] On 30 June, 1918, he was promoted to the rank of Commander,[4] and replaced as Gunnery Officer on 31 August, remaining in Tiger as Executive Officer.[5]
He invented some fire control aids, such as a time-of-flight watch (presumably, as an aid to spotting) around 1909, deployed perhaps by 1911,[6] and was trying to effect a pneumatic plotter so Mark IV Dreyer tables could automatically plot range cuts signaled from multiple sources, although on 6 July 1914 this ambitious design was rejected in favour of the humble (even clumsily so) Brownrigg Keyboard.[7]
Footnotes
- ↑ Navy List (October, 1908). p. 312.
- ↑ Navy List (December, 1914). p. 343.
- ↑ Navy List (October, 1915). p. 398q.
- ↑ Navy List (December, 1918). p. 122.
- ↑ Navy List (December, 1918). p. 920.
- ↑ Brooks. pp. 56, 63.
- ↑ Brooks. p. 171.
Bibliography
- Template:BibBrooksDreadnoughtGunnery
- "Rear-Admiral Macnamara" (Obituaries). The Times. Monday, 8 April, 1957. Issue 53810, col A, pg. 14.
Service Record
- The National Archives. ADM 196/50.
