Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair

Admiral SIR Dudley Rawson Stratford de Chair, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., M.V.O., HON LL.D. (McGill) Royal Navy (30 August, 1864 – 17 August, 1958) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

Life & Career

De Chair was promoted to the rank of Captain on 26 June, 1902.

On 6 March, 1911 de Chair was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to King George V, in place of Ernest C. T. Troubridge, promoted to flag rank.

Flag Rank

On 31 July, 1912, de Chair was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral, vice Frederick T. Hamilton. On 9 January, 1913 he was appointed Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty. On 29 June, 1914 he was appointed Admiral of the Training Service.

Great War

On 1 January, 1916, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (K.C.B.).

He was confirmed in the rank of Vice-Admiral on 5 October, 1917.

In his memoirs de Chair gave his account of the end of his tenure as Vice-Admiral Commanding the Third Battle Squadron:

A few days later, after Jellicoe had been so unjustly dismissed, and while my flagship was still coaling, I received an urgent telegram from Wemyss to go to the Admiralty. On arrival I was greeted warmly by him, but I was still boiling over with indignation about Jellicoe's dismissal, and the way Wemyss had betrayed him. When Wemyss began talking of filling vacancies at the Admiralty, and asked me to take one of the posts on the Board of Admiralty vacated by one of the admirals who had resigned in consequence of Jellicoe's dismissal, I told him that I would not and could not take and post at the Admiralty, as I felt so keenly the disgraceful manner in which Jellicoe had been treated. I added that I was surprised that any naval officer on the Board of Admiralty could remain there, as it looked as if they condoned this action of Jellicoe's dismissal. In fact, I expressed myself forcibly, and let myself go, and left him after a scene which did me no good and had disastrous results, in so far that, shortly afterwards I was relieved of my command and put on half-pay—and that in war-time, when I might have been of use afloat, as I was essentially a sea officer.

Having hauled down his flag, De Chair went to Bracknell for "a delightful rest." De Chair later wrote, "As time went on, I realised that I could expect very little help from the Admiralty, but Beatty, the C.-in-C. of the Grand Fleet, wrote to me that he expected to have me with him on one of the first vacancies of his Battle Squadrons in the Grand Fleet, so I worked on in the hope of getting to sea again, and taking part in any action that might transpire."

Governor of New South Wales

On 8 November, 1923 de Chair was appointed Governor of the State of New South Wales in the Commonwealth of Australia and was placed on the Retired List at his own request dated 1 November in order to take up the appointment.

Bibliography

• "Adm. Sir Dudley de Chair" (Obituaries). The Times. Tuesday, 19 August, 1958. Issue 54233, col D, pg. 10.
• Clune, David; Griffith, Gareth (2006). Decision and Deliberation: The Parliament of New South Wales 1856-2003. Sydney: The Federation Press. ISBN 1-86287-591-X.
• de Chair, Admiral Sir Dudley (1961). The Sea is Strong. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd..

Papers

• Papers in the possession of the Imperial War Museum. Catalogue numbers 7865 P38-41 & PP/MCR/C4.

Service Records

• The National Archives. ADM 196/42.
• The National Archives. ADM 196/20.

Naval Offices
Preceded by Lewis Bayly	Naval Attaché at Washington, D.C. 1902 – 1905	Succeeded by Frank E. C. Ryan
Preceded by David Beatty	Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty 1913 – 1914	Succeeded by The Hon. Horace L. A. Hood
Preceded by Charles L. Napier	Vice-Admiral Commanding, Tenth Cruiser Squadron 1914 – 1916	Succeeded by Reginald G. O. Tupper
Preceded by Sir Herbert L. Heath	Vice-Admiral Commanding, Third Battle Squadron 1917 – 1918	Succeeded by Command Abolished
Preceded by Sir Cecil F. Thursby	Admiral Commanding Coastguard and Reserves 1918 – 1921	Succeeded by Sir Morgan Singer