Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes

[qprdave]

December 26, 1945

Taken from The Times Archive

[dennis a feary]

QPRDAVE / ALL, medals to Roger Keyes I have already put into MEDALS Thread & then Awards & Recommendations Post.

Sadsac

[Dreadnought]

ROGER JOHN BROWNLOW KEYES

After a service at Westminster Abbey, Roger Keyes was buried in Dover, in the Zeebrugge plot, where some of those who died on the raid on St George's Day, 1918, are buried. The inscription on his memorial reads:

In Memory
Of
Admiral of the Fleet
Sir Roger J B Keyes Bt MP
Baron Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover
GCB KCVO CMG DSO DCL LLD
GC of Leopold GO Legion of Honour
Croix de Guerre DSM
4 Oct 1872 - 26 Dec 1945
Sixty years outstanding service
First Commodore of Submarines 1910-1915
First Chief Combined Operations 1940-41
Died from injuries received on active service in Far East

Witu 1890
China 1900
Heligoland Dardanelles Zeebrugge 1914-1918
Belgium 1940
Leyte 1944



Photogrpah of Keyes, Commodore 1910-1915
Churchill appointed Keyes as Director of Combined Operations 1940-41


Photograph in public domain. Copyright expired.

[Dreadnought]

Article from New York Times reporting Keyes being awarded The Order of Kinght Commander of the Bath in 1918 following the Zeebrugge raid.

Photograph (1917) showing The British Gallipoli High Command: Commodore Roger Keyes, Admiral John de Robeck, and Sir Ian Hamilton.


Photograph in public domain. Copyright expired.

[Dreadnought]

In 1917, Keyes was dumbfounded when Jellicoe, who was then First Sea Lord, said to him “Well Roger, you’ve talked a hell of a lot about what ought to be done in the Dover area. Now you must go and do it ..!” Keyes had taken over Dover Command from Admiral Bacon and had to put his plans in place to prevent German submarines from passing through the English Channel. The raid on Zeebrugge was part of those plans.

Various articles from the New York time regarding Zeebrugge.
Photograph of a grinning Keyes


Photograph in the puiblic domain. Copyright expired.

[Dreadnought]

Two more newspaper acrticles describing the work of Keyes whilst in Command of Dover.

Apparently, in November 1918, HMS Glatton arrived at Dover, having prviously taken on ammunition elsewhere. Shortly after her arrival, there was an accidental explosion in the 6" magazine that soon threatened to spread to the 9.2" magazines. If this had happened, the resulting explosion would have devastated much of the port. Crews were sent onboard to aid the existing crew in trying to contain the blaze, and if that proved impossible, to open the sea cocks to flood the magazines. Unfortunately this wasn't totally successful and Vice Admiral Roger Keyes gave the order to have HMS Glatton torpedoed to avert the imminent catastrophe. There wasn't time to remove many of the sailors who were still struggling valiantly at their task, and they perished when Glatton was sunk.

The wreck remained in Dover Harbour until the 1920's, when it was salvaged and the bodies finally recovered - they were transported to Chatham for identification and then interred in Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham.


Articles from The New York Times

[dennis a feary]

Following on from QPR's OBIT, great inclusion of yours CLIVE.
Well done both !!

Sadsac