Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt, First Baronet

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Reginald Yorke Tyrwhitt, 1st Baronet, G.C.B., D.S.O., D.C.L. (10 May, 1870 – 30 May, 1951) was an officer of the Royal Navy during the First World War.

Early Life and Career

Tyrwhitt was born in Oxford on 10 May, 1870, the fifth son of the Reverend Richard St. John Tyrwhitt (1827–1895), vicar of St. Mary Magdalen, and the fourth with his second wife, Caroline (d.1883), daughter of John Yorke, of Bewerley Hall, Yorkshire. He entered Britannia as a naval cadet in 1883, served in the Australia and Ajax for the naval manœuvres of 1889 and 1890 respectively, and in 1892 was promoted Lieutenant and appointed to the light cruiser Cleopatra on the North America station.

In 1896 Tyrwhitt took over the command of the Hart, one of the very early destroyers in the navy, and thus began a long and distinguished association with this class of ship. Towards the end of the year he was appointed First Lieutenant in the Surprise, the Commander-in-Chief's yacht in the Mediterranean, and followed that with a similar post in the Indefatigable on the North America station. In 1903 Tyrwhitt married Sarah Angela Mary Margaret (d.1958), daughter of Matthew Corbally, of Rathbeale Hall, Swords, County Dublin; they had one son and two daughters. That year, he was promoted Template:CmdrRN and appointed to the Aurora, tender to the Britannia at Dartmouth. He commanded the destroyer Waveney (1904–5) and the scouts Attentive (1906) and Skirmisher (1907).

In June, 1908 Tyrwhitt was promoted Captain and, with a long record of destroyer command behind him, was selected in August to command the Topaze as captain (D) of the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla at Portsmouth. After holding that command for two years he was made flag captain to Sir Douglas Gamble in the Mediterranean Fleet, commanding successively the Bacchante and the Good Hope. In 1912 he returned home to command the Bellona as Captain (D) of the Second Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet, and in 1914 was promoted Commodore (T) being then in charge of all destroyer flotillas in the fleet. In addition to his main interest in destroyer tactics, Tyrwhitt was a strong supporter of the introduction of flying in the navy and his encouragement was a considerable factor in the formation of the Royal Naval Air Service.

The Harwich Force

At the outbreak of the First World War Tyrwhitt was at Harwich, flying his broad pennant in the light cruiser Amethyst, with the First and Third Destroyer Flotillas in company. As Commodore, and from 1918 Rear-Admiral, Harwich force, he served throughout the whole war in that single appointment, an indication of the Admiralty's high appreciation of the skill and leadership with which he led the force throughout the strenuous operations in which it was engaged.

It was as a war leader that Tyrwhitt really blossomed. He had in abundance the four ‘aces’ which make the great commander: a gift for leadership, a fertile imagination and a creative brain, an eagerness to make full use of the brains and ideas of juniors, and an offensive spirit. His were the first ships to be in action in the war when they sank the German mine-layer Königin Luise off the Thames estuary on 5 August, 1914. Twenty-three days later the Harwich force was engaged in the Heligoland bight action, an operation jointly planned by Tyrwhitt and Roger Keyes, commanding the British submarine flotillas. Three German cruisers were sunk in the engagement, and although Tyrwhitt's ship, the Arethusa, was severely damaged in the action she returned safely to Sheerness where, Tyrwhitt recorded, Winston Churchill ‘fairly slobbered over me’. He was created C.B.

There followed the German battle cruiser raid on Scarborough and Hartlepool on 16 December, 1914 when, although the sea was too rough for his destroyers, Tyrwhitt was at sea with his light cruisers and only just failed to make contact with the enemy ships. He commanded the covering force in the Heligoland bight for the naval seaplane raid on the Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven on 25 December, 1914, and in January, 1915 his Harwich force played a notable part in conjunction with the battle cruisers of Sir David Beatty at the Battle of the Dogger Bank.

On intercepting the ‘enemy sighted’ signal on 31 May, 1916 which heralded the Battle of Jutland, Tyrwhitt put to sea with the Harwich Force only to be recalled by signal from the Admiralty. Eventually he was permitted to sail, but arrived on the scene too late to take any part in the action. In the German fleet operation of 19 August, 1916, which was to be a bombardment of Sunderland, the ships of the Harwich force were the only British vessels to sight the German fleet. Scheer, the German commander-in-chief, ordered a withdrawal before the bombardment could take place and it was as the enemy retired that Tyrwhitt sighted them. He was in chase until nightfall, but as his only chance of making an attack on them would be after the moon had risen, he was forced to draw off before bringing them to action. In uninformed circles Tyrwhitt was later criticized for failing to press an attack home, but virtual suicide was no part of his plan and his action in withdrawing was upheld by both Sir John Jellicoe and the Admiralty.

In 1917 and 1918 the Harwich force engaged in several small-scale actions, mainly off the Dutch coast or in co-operation with the destroyers of the Dover patrol, and as the covering force for naval air attacks on enemy installations. After the armistice it was Tyrwhitt's Harwich force which accepted the surrender of the German U-boats.

Post-War

Tyrwhitt was appointed to the D.S.O. in 1916 and in 1917 promoted K.C.B. He was created a baronet in 1919 and granted £10,000 by Parliament for his services during the war. He received many foreign decorations and an honorary degree of D.C.L. from Oxford (1919).

After the war Tyrwhitt was appointed senior officer at Gibraltar and in 1921 he returned to sea as flag officer commanding the Tirdrd Light Cruiser Squadron in the Mediterranean. He was commanding officer, coast of Scotland, and Admiral Superintendent, Rosyth Dockyard in 1923–5 and in 1925 was promoted Vice-Admiral. He was Commander-in-Chief, China Station, from 1927 to 1929, serving there with great tact and distinction during the threat to the international settlement at Shanghai during the Chinese civil war. He was promoted Admiral on relinquishing command in China and was also promoted G.C.B. In 1930–33 he was Commander-in-Chief at the Nore, becoming first and principal naval aide-de-camp to the King in 1932. In 1934, being the senior admiral on the list, he was promoted Admiral of the Fleet when a vacancy occurred. During the Second World War, at the age of seventy, he joined the Home Guard in 1940 and for a short time commanded the Third Kent battalion.

Tyrwhitt died at Ellenden, Sandhurst, Kent, on 30 May, 1951, and was succeeded as second baronet by his son, St. John Reginald Joseph (1905–1961), who also entered the Royal Navy, becoming Second Sea Lord in 1959. His elder daughter, Mary Tyrwhitt, retired as director of the Women's Royal Army Corps in 1950.

Wealth at death; £11,562 4s. 9d.: Probate; 29 August, 1951.

Bibliography

• "Adm. of the Fleet Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt" (Obituaries). The Times. Thursday, 31 May, 1951. Issue 52015, col G, pg. 8.
• "Admiral of the Fleet Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt" (Obituaries). The Times. Wednesday, 27 June, 1951. Issue 52038, col F, pg. 8.