William Ogilvy Hozier

Lieutenant-Commander William Ogilvy Hozier (2 April, 1888 – 19 April, 1921) was an officer in the Royal Navy.

Life & Career

Hozier's mother was Lady Hozier of Berthampstead, Herts. By virtue of his sister being Clementine Ogilvy Hozier, he was to become the brother-in-law to Winston Churchill when she married on 12 September, 1908.

Hozier was awarded the Ryder Memorial Prize for 1908 for placing highest in the examination in French at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Despite this facility, he qualified as an Interpreter in German at some point.

Hozier was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 30 September, 1909.

In late June, 1910 Hozier was appointed to Mars for the Annual Manoeuvres of 1910. Though there but briefly, Captain Frank E. C. Ryan gave Hozier a certificate indicating that Hozier had conducted himself "soberly but unsatisfactorily". When asked by the Admiralty to explain his reasons for issuing such an unusual instrument, Ryan's rationale proved somehow not commendable. Nonetheless, when Hozier was appointed to Hibernia as acting Interpreter in German, her captain was asked to appraise Hozier's conduct in six months' time.

Hozier did well during this period. In June 1911, his conduct was reported as satisfactory and hard work had brought him a first-class certificate in his final examination, though Captain Roger Keyes described Hozier as being "of nervous & excitable temperament." Hozier was allowed to travel to France for a week.

Hozier was appointed in command of T.B. 110 on 4 July, 1913. In October 1913, T.B. 110 collided with Hyde Pier and Hozier was cautioned to be more careful in future by C-in-C, Portsmouth. She also collided with a steamer in Portsmouth Harbour on 10 March, 1914.

Great War

Hozier was appointed in command of the destroyer Thorn, a thirty-knotter with the Seventh Destroyer Flotilla, on 3 August, 1914.

Hozier was appointed in command of H.M.S. Nubian on 20 January, 1915. In April or May, a U-boat escaped from nets in the Straits of Dover under the nose of Nubian. A Court of Enquiry found that Hozier had missed a prime opportunity to ram the submarine, and he was superseded in command on 23 June. It was perhaps in relation to this event that Charles Beresford would write to Admiral de Robeck in 1917 that Horace Hood had been replaced in command of the Dover Patrol for having written to Churchill pleading to be permitted to offload his brother-in-law.

In 1915 or possibly 1917, he was admitted to Malta Hospital, "slightly sick" with dysentery. He was sent to Gibraltar Hospital on 29 August of 1917.

A Court of Enquiry was convened at some point, possibly involving a mishap with a ship named Burnaby. Hozier was not to be relieved of command and was to receive three months of probationary treatment.

Hozier was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander on 30 September, 1917.

On 1 June, 1918, he was appointed to the battleship Superb. He was re-appointed to her on 26 April, 1919 as an Acting Interpreter in German.

Hozier was placed on the Retired List on 9 October, 1919, welcome to a step in rank upon reaching age 40. He was to die before that happened, however.

See Also

• Service Records
• Wikipedia
• Court of Enquiry investigating escape of hostile submarine from nets in Straits of Dover. Lieut W.O. Hozier of Nubian The National Archives. ADM 156/160.

Naval Appointments
Preceded by Harold G. Campbell	Captain of H.M. T.B. 110 4 Jul, 1913 – 3 Aug, 1914	Succeeded by Harald E. Wharton
Preceded by John N. Benbow	Captain of H.M.S. Thorn 3 Aug, 1914[Inference] – 20 Jan, 1915	Succeeded by Henry F. Besant
Preceded by Charles E. Cundall	Captain of H.M.S. Nubian 20 Jan, 1915 – 23 Jun, 1915	Succeeded by John I. Hallett
Preceded by Tim M. Barrett	Captain of H.M.S. Clematis 12 Oct, 1916 – 30 Mar, 1918	Succeeded by Ernest K. Irving