Sir Frederic Wake-Walker | |
|---|---|
 Wake-Walker when Third Sea Lord, January 1944 | |
| Birth name | William Frederic Wake-Walker |
| Born | (1888-03-24)24 March 1888 |
| Died | 24 September 1945(1945-09-24) (aged 57) London, England |
| Allegiance |  United Kingdom |
| Branch |  Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1903–1945 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands | HMS Castor HMS Dragon HMS Revenge Director of Torpedoes and Mining 12th Cruiser Squadron 1st Mine Laying Squadron Force K 1st Cruiser Squadron |
| Battles / wars | OperationDynamo Battle of the Denmark Strait Last battle of the battleshipBismarck |
AdmiralSir William Frederic Wake-WalkerKCBCBE (24 March 1888 – 24 September 1945) was a British admiral who served in theRoyal Navy duringWorld War I andWorld War II, taking a leading part in the destruction of theBismarck, and inOperationDynamo, the evacuation atDunkirk.
Born William Frederic Wake-Walker, he was the son of Frederic George Arthur Wake-Walker and Mary Eleanor Forster and the grandson of Admiral SirBaldwin Wake Walker, who wasSurveyor of the Navy from 1848 to 1861.[1]
After attendingHaileybury school, Wake-Walker entered theRoyal Naval College atDartmouth as acadet in 1903,[2] and went to sea the following year asmidshipman aboardHMS Good Hope, the flagship of the 1st Cruiser Squadron.[3]
By the start ofWorld War I, Wake-Walker had risen to the rank oflieutenant, and served as torpedo lieutenant onHMS Cochrane from 1913 to 1915. He was promoted tolieutenant-commander in July 1916 and after training atHMS Vernon, was appointed to the newbattleshipHMS Ramillies, serving in her until the end of the war.[3]
Wake-Walker was promoted tocommander in June 1920, serving aboardHMS Coventry from 1919 to 1921. Between 1921 and 1925, he served at theRoyal Naval College, Greenwich, then at the Tactical School, Portsmouth. He returned to sea as executive officer ofHMS Royal Oak from 1925 to 1927.[3] Wake-Walker achievedflag rank on 10 January 1939.[2]
On 13 August 1934,Dragon under Wake-Walker's command was entering the Market (or Victoria) Basin in the harbour of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, when the ship collided with an oil bunkering steamer,Maplebranch, which was securely moored at the time of the collision.Maplebranch sank. The steamer's owners sued Wake-Walker for the damages toMaplebranch and its cargo, alleged to have been caused solely by the improper and negligent navigation and mismanagement ofDragon by Wake-Walker. In his defence, Wake-Walker pleaded inevitable accident, caused by the maneuvering of a third vessel,Saguenay Trader, which Wake-Walker was trying to avoid hitting.[4]
The Admiralty action was heard by theExchequer Court of Canada (Quebec Admiralty District), which held that Wake-Walker was liable. Wake-Walker appealed to theSupreme Court of Canada, which upheld the finding of liability on a 3-2 majority. Speaking for the majority,Justice Davis held that when a vessel under steam collides with a moored vessel, the commander of the vessel under steam is presumed liable for the collision, and has the onus of proving that he was not negligent. Wake-Walker had not done so. In addition, the trial judge had found actual fault by Wake-Walker in his navigation ofDragon and there was no basis to set aside that finding on appeal.[5] Wake-Walker then appealed to theJudicial Committee of the Imperial Privy Council, at that time the highest court of appeal for the British Empire. That court dismissed the appeal. Speaking for the Judicial Committee,Viscount Sankey agreed with the courts below that Wake-Walker had not discharged the onus to prove that the accident had been inevitable.[4]
Wake-Walker was first appointedrear-admiral commanding the 12th Cruiser Squadron in September 1939. This appointment lasted only a short time as he soon returned to the Admiralty as head of a special group created to developmagnetic mine countermeasures.[3]
In May 1940, Wake-Walker was appointed rear-admiral in command of all ships and vessels off the Franco-Belgian coast for the evacuation ofDunkirk. Wake-Walker reached Dunkirk in the minesweeperHMS Hebe on 30 May. On 1 June his flagship, the destroyerHMS Keith, was sunk byJu 87 Stukas, and he thereafter directed operations from themotor torpedo boatMTB 102 in the harbour. For his role in the evacuation he was appointedCompanion of the Bath.[3]
In late May 1941, two of Wake-Walker's heavy cruisers –HMS Suffolk and his flagshipHMS Norfolk - were positioned north west ofIceland to intercept and shadow theBismarck if she attempted to break out into the Atlantic.[3]Bismarck sortied fromBergen towards the Denmark Strait on 21 May in company with the heavy cruiserPrinz Eugen.[3]
On 23 May 1941 at 19:22,Suffolk sightedBismarck andPrinz Eugen. After a brief exchange of fire, the out-gunned British ships took cover in nearby fog and tracked the enemy byradar. They maintained contact with the two German ships through the night despite appalling weather, and guided Vice-AdmiralLancelot Holland's two capital shipsHMS Hood andHMS Prince of Wales into position to interceptBismarck. The two forces came together in theBattle of the Denmark Strait the next day.[3]
Vice-Admiral Holland was killed whenHood was destroyed, and many ofPrince of Wales's senior officers were killed or wounded, which left Wake-Walker in command of the survivingNorfolk,Suffolk andPrince of Wales. He decided not to risk continuing the battle but to shadow the German ships, believing that AdmiralJohn Tovey, with powerful elements of theHome Fleet, was approaching.[3] Wake-Walker stayed in the trail ofBismarck, but radar contact was lost early on 25 May. Wake-Walker sentSuffolk to search to the southwest, and thus she played no further role in the battle.Norfolk turned east, and was atthe sinking of the Bismarck, the following day.[3]
Later, moves were made to court-martial Wake-Walker and CaptainJohn Leach ofPrince of Wales. The view was taken that they were wrong not to have continued the battle withBismarck afterHood had sunk. John Tovey, Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, was appalled at this criticism. A row ensued between Tovey and his superior, Admiral SirDudley Pound. Tovey stated that the two officers had acted correctly, not endangering their ships needlessly and ensuring that the German ships were tracked. Tovey threatened to resign his position and appear at any court-martial as 'defendant's friend' and defence witness. No more was heard of the proposal.[6][7][8][Note 1] For his part in the destruction ofBismarck, Wake-Walker was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire.[3] In 1943 Wake-Walker was appointed aKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath.[2]
Wake-Walker married Muriel Elsie Hughes (1890–1963), only daughter ofSir Collingwood Hughes ofEast Bergholt,Suffolk, atSt Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, on 19 January 1916. They had two sons and two daughters, including the artist Penelope Hughes Wake-Walker (1917–2003),[9] who married SirGeoffrey Eley of East Bergholt, and Capt. Christopher Baldwin Hughes Wake-Walker (1920–1998), who married Anne (1920−2020), daughter of the7th Earl Spencer and aunt ofDiana, Princess of Wales.[10][11]
He died unexpectedly at his home in London on 24 September 1945 at the age of 57[3] and is buried inEast Bergholt cemetery.[12]
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy 1942–1945 | Succeeded by |
