Ralph Seymour (Royal Navy officer)
Commander Ralph Frederick Seymour | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 January 1886 |
| Died | 4 October 1922 |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/ | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1902-1922 |
| Rank | Commander |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
First World War
.
Family
Seymour was the fourth child and first son of Sir Horace Alfred Damer Seymour, KCB (1843–1902), and Elizabeth Mary Romilly (1859–1950). His father had been
Commissioner of Customs and Deputy Master of the Mint
.
The family had numerous aristocratic and naval connections. Ralph's great-grandfather was
Clementine. It has been suggested[1] that it was the Churchill connection that brought Lieutenant Seymour to the attention of Beatty, who had been Churchill's Naval Secretary
in 1912.
He entered the Royal Navy, and was on 1 October 1902 posted as a
lieutenant
on 15 December 1906.
Throughout the
Flag Lieutenant to Admiral Sir David Beatty, despite the fact that he did not possess a full training in signalling. A badly-worded signal he sent during the German battlecruiser raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 caused Beatty's scouting forces to break off contact with the enemy, thus prematurely ending the pursuit.[5] During the Battle of Dogger Bank and the Battle of Jutland
he was responsible for sending flag signals so ineptly worded that, after the event, they were considered to have diminished the British success in those conflicts.
Beatty remained loyal and supportive of Seymour during and after the war, and took him to the
First Sea Lord. After this, however, when Beatty's actions at Jutland began to receive hostile scrutiny, his attitude to Seymour changed and became much more negative. Seymour suffered a nervous breakdown, and was invalided out of the Navy in 1922. He committed suicide by jumping off Black Rock, Brighton, a landmark near his home since redeveloped into Brighton Marina.[6]
References
- ^ Gordon 2000, pp. 384–5
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36889. London. 3 October 1902. p. 8.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36910. London. 28 October 1902. p. 9.
- ^ "Naval & Military intelligence". The Times. No. 36968. London. 3 January 1903. p. 6.
- ^ Gordon, Andrew (2000). The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command. Naval Institute Press. pp. 93–4.
- ^ Gordon 2000, pp. 543–4
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