Christopher John Francis Eddis

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Lieutenant-Commander Christopher John Francis Eddis, R.N. (7 June, 1885 – 19 October, 1918) was an officer in the Royal Navy who would die in the final days of the war of influenza. His younger brother Paul Leathley Eddis also served in the Navy and would perish in the 1924 accidental loss of the submarine L 24.

Life & Career

The son of a reverend in Surrey, Eddis gained two months' time on passing out of Britannia.

Eddis was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 31 December, 1907.[1]

On 29 October, 1909 the battleship Hannibal collided with Eddis's T.B. 105, severely damaging the boat.

Eddis was appointed Lieutenant & Commander of the first-class torpedo boat T.B. 11 on 19 January, 1911.[2]

In May of 1911, Eddis was blamed for a collision between T.B. 11 and T.B. 31 while embarking men onto T.B. 11, possibly from 31. It was considered that he should have selected a more sheltered location for the operation.

Eddis was appointed in command of the destroyer Cynthia on 14 August, 1913.[3]

Great War

On 7 July 1915, Eddis was admitted to Chatham Hospital for tonsillitis. He was fit on 20 July.

On 1 December, 1915, Eddis's Firefly was exchanging fire with Turkish shore batteries on the Tigris when she received a hit in her boiler and lost power. Eddis was wounded during this action. The gunboat had to be abandoned, and the Turks took her and used her in their own efforts in the war. An unidentified Captain recorded that Eddis "showed great ability and coolness during his period of command of Firefly especially when severely wounded on December 1st 1915." Eddis was mentioned in General Sir John Nixon's despatches, gazetted on 13 July 1916.

Eddis was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander on 31 December, 1915.

Eddis incurred Their Lordships' "grave displeasure" in the disappearance overboard of a petty officer on the night of 27/28 July, 1916.

On 26 February, 1917, the Ottomans accidentally ran their ill-gotten Firefly aground near where they had captured her from Eddis. The Turks abandoned her and she was re-captured by the British gunboat Tarantula. Eddis presently resumed command of his former gunboat, finding most of his books and papers still in his cabin![4]

On 4 August 1917 he called at the Admiralty and was seen in a hospital to have a foreign body removed. Only four days were allotted.

On 5 February 1918, Grasshopper, Mosquito, and Eddis's own Pigeon were escorting a convoy when the Anchor Line/Cunard troopship SS Tuscania was torpedoed and sunk in the North Channel, off Islay by UB 77 as the convoy approached Liverpool. This would be the first troopship carrying American troops sunk in WWI and the only one sunk under protection of a British convoy. The destroyers assisted in the rescue of American troops.[5]

A telegram indicated that Eddis was sick in hospital on 15 May, 1918.

He died of influenza in October, 1918.

See Also

Naval Appointments
Preceded by
The Hon. Guy Stopford
Captain of H.M. T.B. 105
4 Feb, 1908[6][7] – 27 Oct, 1908[8]
Succeeded by
Charles C. de M. Malan
Preceded by
Edmond A. T. de P. de la Poer
Captain of H.M. T.B. 108
27 Oct, 1908[9][10] – 27 Jan, 1910[11]
Succeeded by
Alfred G. Peace
Preceded by
Robert H. B. Hammond-Chambers
Captain of H.M. T.B. 11
19 Jan, 1911[12][13] – 14 Aug, 1913[14]
Succeeded by
Hugh R. Troup
Preceded by
Frederic W. Clarkson
Captain of H.M.S. Cynthia
14 Aug, 1913[15][16] – 4 Aug, 1915[17]
Succeeded by
George ff. H. Lloyd
Preceded by
?
Captain of H.M.S. Firefly
4 Aug, 1915[18] – 1 Dec, 1915[19]
Succeeded by
John P. Bradley
Preceded by
Robert P. D. Webster
Captain of H.M.S. Sawfly
27 Dec, 1915[20][21] – 15 Jan, 1916[22]
Succeeded by
George F. A. Mulock
Preceded by
Henry G. Sherbrooke
Captain of H.M.S. Tarantula
11 Aug, 1916[23] – Sep, 1916[24]
Succeeded by
Harold F. B. Handley
Preceded by
Michael K. H. Kennedy
Captain of H.M.S. Pigeon
15 May, 1917[25][26] – 19 Mar, 1918[27]
Succeeded by
Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper
Preceded by
New Command
Captain of H.M.S. Scimitar
19 Mar, 1918[28] – 19 Oct, 1918[29]
Succeeded by
James R. C. Cavendish

Footnotes

  1. The Navy List. (March, 1913). p. 24.
  2. The Navy List. (March, 1913). p. 400.
  3. The Navy List. (January, 1915). p. 300.
  4. Hepper. British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era: 1860-1919. p. 47.
  5. Email from Marilyn Gahm, Spooner, Wisconsin USA to Tone, Feb 5, 2016.
  6. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  7. The Navy List. (October, 1908). p. 401.
  8. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  9. The Navy List. (January, 1910). p. 401a.
  10. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  11. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  12. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  13. The Navy List. (March, 1913). p. 400.
  14. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  15. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  16. The Navy List. (April, 1915). p. 393h.
  17. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  18. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  19. Hepper. British Warship Losses in the Ironclad Era: 1860-1919. p. 47.
  20. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  21. The Navy List. (December, 1916). p. 397w.
  22. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  23. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  24. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  25. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  26. The Navy List. (November, 1917). p. 396m.
  27. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  28. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.
  29. Eddis Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/50/98. f. ?.