Sir Frederic Charles Dreyer | |
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| Born | (1878-01-08)8 January 1878 Parsonstown, Ireland |
| Died | 11 December 1956(1956-12-11) (aged 78) Winchester, England |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1891–1943 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands | China Station (1933–36) Battlecruiser Squadron (1927–29) HMS Repulse (1922–23) HMS Iron Duke (1915–16) HMS Orion (1913–15) HMS Amphion (1913) |
| Battles / wars | First World WarSecond World War |
| Awards | Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |
| Relations | Major General John Tuthill Dreyer (brother) AdmiralSir Desmond Dreyer (son) |
AdmiralSir Frederic Charles Dreyer (8 January 1878 – 11 December 1956) was an officer of theRoyal Navy. A gunnery expert, he developed afire control system for British warships, and served asflag captain to AdmiralSir John Jellicoe at theBattle of Jutland. He retired with the rank of admiral in 1943, having served through two world wars and having already retired once.
Frederic Dreyer was born on 8 January 1878 in the Irish town ofParsonstown (now Birr) inKing's County (now County Offaly), the second son of the Danish-born astronomerJohn Louis Emil Dreyer who was director of theArmagh Observatory. Educated atThe Royal School, Armagh, in 1891 Dreyer joined the Royal Navy and entered theRoyal Naval College, Dartmouth.[1]
At Dartmouth Dreyer performed well in his examinations and was placed fifth in his term. He then served as amidshipman inHMSAnson (1893–1896) andHMSBarfleur (1896–1897). In nearly all his subsequent examinations for promotions he obtained Class 1 certificates—for sub-lieutenant, lieutenant (July 1898, while aboardHMSRepulse) and then gunnery lieutenant. In 1900 he authored a book calledHow to Get a First Class in Seamanship. He came first in his class of three in the advanced course for gunnery and torpedo lieutenants at theRoyal Naval College, Greenwich in 1901, after which he was posted to the staff of the gunnery school atSheerness. He served as gunnery officer to the cruiserHMSScylla for annual manoeuvres during summer 1902, then was lent to the protected cruiserHMSHawke for a trooping trip to the Mediterranean (August–September 1902).[2] He was appointed to the battleshipHMSHood in the Mediterranean from September 1902,[3] but the ship's rudder had been damaged and the ship proceeded home to be repaired and paid off at Plymouth. Dreyer was reappointed to theHawke on 13 January 1903[4] for another trooping voyage toMalta, and when she was paid off in March, he was appointed to the staff ofHMSExcellent, then under the command of CaptainPercy M. Scott. After two months at Excellent, Scott submitted Dreyer's name for appointment as Gunnery Officer to the new battleshipHMSExmouth.
From June 1903, Dreyer was posted as gunnery officer to theExmouth in theMediterranean.[1] In 1904Exmouth became the flagship of theBritish Home Fleet whereupon he became gunnery advisor to the Commander-in-Chief, AdmiralSir Arthur Wilson. From 1904 to 1907Exmouth came first in the Home Fleet's (later Channel Fleet) gunlayer tests and battle practices. In 1905 he served on a calibration committee chaired by the Inspector of Target Practice, Rear AdmiralPercy Scott. He was posted as experimental gunnery officer to the first dreadnought battleshipHMSDreadnought on her experimental cruise of 1907 on "Special Service" to assist with gunnery trials.[1]
On his return, and upon the recommendation of Admiral Wilson, Dreyer was promoted commander and appointed an Assistant to theDirector of Naval Ordnance (DNO),John Jellicoe.[1] At the end of 1907 he assisted in the trials of Arthur Hungerford Pollen'sArgo rangefinder mounting and plotter on the cruiserHMSAriadne. He returned to theAdmiralty, under the new DNO CaptainReginald Bacon and remained there until 1909, when he was appointed commander (executive officer) in the new dreadnoughtHMSVanguard, then completing inBarrow-in-Furness.[1] In 1910 Dreyer was invited by Vice Admiral Jellicoe to be his flag commander,[1] first inHMSPrince of Wales (flagship of the Atlantic Fleet) and then inHMSHercules (flagship of the 2nd Division of the Home Fleet).
On Jellicoe's advice, Dreyer was given command of thescout cruiserHMSAmphion in 1913,[1] with promotion to captain in June. That yearAmphion came first out of the entire navy in the gunlayer's test and first in the vessel's type in battle practice. In October, 1913 he becameflag captain (commander of the flagship) to Rear AdmiralSir Robert Arbuthnot in the battleshipHMSOrion (flagship Rear Admiral 2nd Battle Squadron) until 1915.[1] At the behest of Jellicoe, now Commander-in-Chief of theGrand Fleet, Dreyer was made flag captain ofHMSIron Duke, serving at theBattle of Jutland in 1916.[1]
Dreyer moved to the Admiralty with Jellicoe as theAssistant Director of the Anti-Submarine Division.[1] In March 1917 he was appointed DNO,[1] where he formed a committee to design and produce a new type of armour-piercing shell, as the existing type had proved woefully unreliable. He was appointed to the Naval Staff as Director of Naval Artillery and Torpedoes in 1918.[1] Following the Armistice he was appointed commodore, 2nd class and served as Chief of Staff to Admiral Jellicoe on his Naval Mission to India and the Dominions onHMSNew Zealand, between 1919 and 1920.[1]
Dreyer returned to the Admiralty asDirector of the Gunnery Division from 1920 to 1922.[1] He went to sea commanding thebattlecruiserHMSRepulse for a year,[1] before serving asAide-de-camp toHM the King.[1] In late 1923 he was promoted rear admiral. In 1924 he became a Lord Commissioner of Admiralty as Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff,[1] and instituted the Tactical School at Portsmouth.
In 1927 Dreyer returned to sea as commander of theBattlecruiser Squadron,[1] flying his flag inHMS Hood. In 1929 he became a vice admiral and the following year becameDeputy Chief of the Naval Staff.[1][5] He had previously entertained hopes of becoming the commander of theAtlantic Fleet after his tenure at the Admiralty. However, the tainting by association of the Board of which he was part by theInvergordon Mutiny in 1931, with the consequent effect on that fleet, meant that Dreyer was destined never to command it.
In 1932 Dreyer was promoted to full admiral and in 1933 given command of theChina Station where he served until 1936.[1] He retired in 1939 only to volunteer as aConvoy Commodore in theRoyal Naval Reserve upon the outbreak of theSecond World War.[1] He was on the staff of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Home Forces in 1940 as an advisor on anti-invasion measure, before becoming Inspector of Merchant Navy Gunnery (1941–1942).[1] He then was appointed asChief of Naval Air Services (1942),[1] before his final brief appointment as Deputy Chief of Naval Air Equipment in 1943. He then returned to the retired list for the second time. His memoirs were published asThe Sea Heritage: A Study in Maritime Warfare.[6]
On 26 June 1901 Dreyer married Una Maria Hallett (1876–1959), daughter of John Thomas Hallett, vicar of Bishop's Tachbrook, Warwickshire; they had three sons and two daughters. His elder brother was Major General John Tuthill Dreyer,RA, with whom he worked on his fire control devices.
All three sons and his two sons-in-law were naval officers. His second son was the late Vice AdmiralSir Desmond Dreyer, who also became a gunnery officer, won theDistinguished Service Cross at theBattle of the River Plate, and went on to becomeSecond Sea Lord.
In 1914 Dreyer was awarded the civilianCompanion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for his services to naval gunnery. Following the Battle of Jutland he was awarded the military CB for the behaviour and shooting ofIron Duke in the battle. After the naval mission to the Empire in 1919 he was made aCommander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1932 he was promoted toKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath and toKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1936.
The introduction of centralized fire control for warships gave a significant improvement to the accuracy of gunnery. The increasing range of naval guns led by several years the necessary advances to control their fire. Over a ten-year period techniques such as centralised spotting of fall of shot, mechanical computation of rate of change of range (rate), mechanical clocks to calculate range over time for any given "rate" and long baselength optical rangefinders were introduced. In order to make sense of such data, manual plotting of rangefinder ranges, from single or multiple rangefinders as well as other data began to find favour. The Royal Navy sponsored research into these techniques, and two groups emerged, a commercial group led byArthur Pollen, and a Naval group led by Dreyer. Both camps aimed to produce a combinedmechanical computer and automatic plot of ranges and rates for use in centralised fire control. Both systems were ordered for new and existing ships of the Royal Navy, although the Dreyer Table, as the Dreyer system was called eventually found most favour with the Navy in its definitive Mark IV* form.
The addition ofdirector control facilitated a full, practicable fire control system for First World War ships, and most RN capital ships were so fitted by mid 1916. The director was high up over the ship where operators had a superior view over any gunlayer in theturrets. It was also able to co-ordinate the fire of the turrets so that their combined fire worked together. This improved aiming and larger optical rangefinders improved the estimate of the enemy's position at the time of firing. But with the longer practical ranges came the increased time of flight. The Fire Control System now had to account for more variations and more complicated corrections than was originally planned. The Dreyer Table had some mechanical flaws, particularly when additional loads were introduced in the form of unauthorised accoutrements concocted by individual gunnery personnel, but on the whole performed in a satisfactory manner. The system was eventually replaced by the improved "Admiralty Fire Control Table" for ships built after 1927, although Dreyer Tables went to war a second time in World War II, notably in Britain's unmodernised battleships and battlecruisers.
The choice between the Dreyer and Pollen systems was controversial at the time. The Royal Navy had repeatedly tested Pollen's designs and had given him what it considered very preferential terms for them.Pollen in 1925 won an award for £30,000 from theRoyal Commission on Awards to Inventors for elements of hisArgo Clock that had been used without his permission. At the same time Dreyer applied for a similar grant but due to the fact that in 1915 he had been awarded £5,000 for his services to fire control his request was denied.[7]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)| Military offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Commander, Battlecruiser Squadron 1927–1929 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff 1930–1933 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Commander-in-Chief, China Station 1933–1936 | Succeeded by |