William Christopher Pakenham

Admiral SIR William Christopher Pakenham, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O., Royal Navy (10 July, 1861 – 28 July, 1933) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

Life & Career

William Christopher Pakenham was born in London on 10 July, 1861, the second son of Rear-Admiral Thomas Alexander Pakenham, third son of the second Earl of Longford, by his wife, Sophia Frances, third daughter of Sir Tatton Sykes, Fourth Baronet, of Sledmere. He entered the Britannia on 15 July, 1874 and having passed out on 21 July, 1876, he went to sea in the Monarch in the Mediterranean, being promoted Midshipman in 1876. He was transferred to the frigate Raleigh the following year. Together with an Able Seaman he was highly commended for gallantry in plunging into the sea and rescuing a Coxswain who had fallen overboard as the ship was leaving Larnaka, Cyprus, in August, 1878. In September, 1879 he joined the Alexandra, Flag Ship of Sir Geoffrey Hornby, and remained in her when Sir F. B. P. Seymour (afterwards Lord Alcester) succeeded to the command until promoted to Sub-Lieutenant in October, 1880. Having undergone the usual gunnery course in the Excellent at Portsmouth he was in December, 1882 again appointed to the Alexandra (still Flag Ship of Lord Alcester); but soon after Lord John Hay had assumed the command he was transferred in April, 1883 to the corvette Canada, destined to join the North America squadron. In this ship he was a strict though benevolent autocrat of the gun-room mess in which Prince George (afterwards King George V) was serving as Midshipman. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 21 October, 1883, and was soon brought home again, having been chosen as Flag Lieutenant by Rear-Admiral George Tryon (flag in the Nelson) during the three years (1884–1887) of his command of the new Australia Station.

Pakenham's remaining nine years as lieutenant were spent mainly as gunnery officer of the small cruisers Calypso, Garnet, and Sybille in the Training Squadron, and on the Pacific and Mediterranean stations. While in the Calypso he again distinguished himself by a brave attempt to save the life of a Petty Officer who had fallen into the sea from the foreyard during drill in Kiel Harbour.

Promoted to the rank of Commander on 30 June, 1896, Pakenham served for nine months in the old Galatea (coastguard ship at Hull) and for eighteen months in the Venus under Sir Berkeley Milne in the Mediterranean. He had qualified as an interpreter in French while on half-pay in 1884, and was selected for duty in the Naval Intelligence Department from August, 1899 until March, 1901. Then he commanded the sloop Daphne on the China Station, and, after being lent to Rear-Admiral Harry Tremenheere Grenfell's flagship Albion as Acting Captain early in 1902, returned home in June of that year. He was promoted to the rank of Captain on 30 June, 1903.

The outbreak of war between Russia and Japan was imminent and Pakenham's experience in intelligence work and his linguistic abilities (although he never learnt Japanese) marked him out as the officer to succeed Captain (afterwards Admiral Sir) Ernest Troubridge, who was due for relief in 1904 as naval attaché in Japan. War broke out on 6 February, 1904 and Pakenham relieved Troubridge in March, taking his place on board the battleship Asahi in which he remained continuously until after the final Japanese victory at Tsushima on 27 May, 1905. His reports to the Admiralty throughout the war revealed a thorough appreciation of the strategic, tactical, and technical implications of the events and situations which he described. His cool daring in exposing himself to danger in order more completely to observe the proceedings of the great battle much impressed the Japanese, and led the Emperor of Japan, on Admiral Togo's recommendation, to confer on him the Second Class of the Order of the Rising Sun. He was specially appointed a Companion of the Bath (Military Division) soon after the battle.

After returning to England in 1906 Pakenham commanded the cruiser Antrim for two years in the Atlantic Fleet, and then the Glory and Triumph (battleship bought from Chile in 1904) in the Mediterranean until January, 1910, when he came home to take command of the new battleship Collingwood in the Home Fleet, until December, 1911. Mr. Winston Churchill, in reconstituting his Board soon after taking office, selected Pakenham to be Fourth Sea Lord, being impressed by his reputation as an officer of strong character and his unique experience of modern naval warfare. On 4 June, 1913, he was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral, and in December he took command of the Third Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet, with his flag in his old ship Antrim.

On 7 March, 1915 Pakenham was given command of the Second Battle Cruiser Squadron, flying his flag in Australia. Through this appointment he became the Rear-Admiral Commanding the Australian Fleet. In the Battle of Jutland (31 May, 1916) Pakenham's flag was flown in the New Zealand, the Australia being under repair at Devonport after a collision with the New Zealand in a fog on 22 April. His remaining ship the Indefatigable was blown up and lost early in the battle. Pakenham distinguished himself by able support of Vice-Admiral Sir David (later Earl) Beatty and was rewarded by appointment as K.C.B. (1916), being personally decorated with that order and also as K.C.V.O. by the King on the occasion of his visit to the fleet at Rosyth in 1917. In November, 1916 Beatty became Commander-in-Chief in succession to Sir John (later Earl) Jellicoe, and on his insistent recommendation Pakenham was appointed to succeed him in the command of the Battle Cruiser Force although there were many officers with strong claims senior to him but who had seen less service with battle cruisers. He transferred his flag from the Australia to the Lion in January, 1917 and retained the command until April, 1919, having been promoted acting Acting Vice-Admiral in June, 1917 and confirmed in that rank on 1 September, 1918.

After a period on half pay Pakenham was appointed President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in August 1919, but at his own request was given another command afloat as Commander-in-Chief on the North America and West Indies Station in October, 1920. After two and a half years he returned home. He was promoted to the rank of Admiral on 6 April, 1922 and retired at his own request on 1 March 1926. He long maintained correspondence with his Japanese friends and made a great impression at Geneva in 1927 by travelling from England for the sole purpose of calling upon Admiral Viscount Saito who had been Minister of Marine in 1905. He was appointed G.C.B. in 1925 and succeeded Sir C. C. Monro as Bath King of Arms in 1930. He resigned from this post only a few days before his death, which took place at San Sebastian, 28 July 1933. He was unmarried.

Pakenham was appointed K.C.M.G (1919), made commander of the Legion of Honour, and given the croix de guerre (bronze palms), the first class of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, the Grand Cordon of the Chinese Order of the Excellent Crop, and the D.S.M. of the United States of America in the post-war award of honours.

Pakenham was a strong-minded, somewhat austere, able, and well-read officer, wholeheartedly devoted to the service and something of a "character" with his faultless care of his personal appearance and dress, his quiet sense of caustic humour, and his studiously polite, if somewhat elaborate, manners. Mr. Churchill paid him a notable tribute in The World Crisis (1923).

Numerous stories are told of Pakenham, as that during the battle of Tsushima the casemate on which he was stationed was struck by a shell with resulting casualties, and his white uniform was splashed with blood. He quietly left the deck and returned in a few minutes with spotless attire and resumed his notes of the battle. It is also related that while in the Grand Fleet he always slept fully dressed as in day-time and that he had all the furniture of the admiral's quarters burnt, together with all inflammable articles in the ship including the deck corticine and the companion-ladder, in order to prevent the danger of fire during an action; and he kept only a chair in his bridge cabin.

A portrait of Pakenham in oils by (Sir) William Nicholson and a charcoal and water-colour drawing by Francis Dodd are in the Imperial War Museum, and he is represented in Sir A. S. Cope's picture ‘Some Sea Officers of the Great War’, painted in 1921, in the National Portrait Gallery.

Bibliography

• "Admiral Sir William Pakenham" (Obituaries). The Times. Monday, 31 July, 1933. Issue 46510, col A, pg. 7.
• Lowis, Commander Geoffrey L. (1959). Fabulous Admirals and Some Naval Fragments. London: Putnam.

Papers

• Papers in the possession of the National Maritime Museum.

Images

• 1920 William Nicholson portrait in the possession of the Imperial War Museum. Catalogue Number 3142.

Service Records

• The National Archives. ADM 196/42.
• The National Archives. ADM 196/20.