Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes
Encyclopedia
Admiral of the Fleet
Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, Bt
GCB
KCVO
CMG
DSO
RN
(4 October 1872 – 26 December 1945) was a noted British admiral, with an active service life that included 19th-century African anti-slavery
patrols to the Allied landings in Leyte
in World War II. He was regarded throughout the British Empire
as one of the great military heroes of his day.
of India, where his father commanded the Punjab
Frontier force, and had achieved a reputation as an heroic figure. He spent his first five years here but, despite being far from the sea, he told his parents "I am going to be an Admiral".
Three years after the family had returned to England Keyes' father was given a new command in India. The parents decided to take the two youngest children with them, but to leave the five oldest, including Roger, in the care of an English country parson and his wife. The accommodations were less than his parents had been led to believe and the younger children were desperately lonely. The parson, however, introduced Keyes to hunting and fishing, which became lifelong passions, particularly hunting. Soon, he was sent to a preparatory school
at Margate
.
in 1885.
Roger Keyes joined the training establishment, HMS Britannia
, in the autumn of 1884, at the age of 12.
Keyes was small and delicate in health, but had an iron will. He took up fencing and rackets, sailed whenever he could and was in the thick of every boyhood scrap.
which was flagship of the Cape of Good Hope
and West Africa Station. He reached Cape Town
on 3 November and began his seagoing life. Raleigh was a full rigged sailing frigate
of 5,200 tons with a propeller which could move her along at 16 knots (31 km/h). Under sail, she could make up to 11 knots (22 km/h).
In 1890, Keyes transferred to , a barque
rigged corvette
of 2,120 tons. The ship operated from Zanzibar
on slavery suppression missions. There was much opportunity for action as small naval launches under junior officers were sent out for weeks at a time to patrol the coast, probing the estuaries and creeks where Arab slavers hid with their cargoes of young women and children, seized from coastal regions in Portuguese East Africa
. Often gunfights ensued as the slaver
s tried to make their escape. He participated in the somewhat farcical 1890 expedition against the Sultan
of Wituland
.
.
Naval examinations followed, not Keyes' strongest suit. However, he managed to scrape through.
During this time, he was attached to various ships in the Channel Fleet
, including a stint in the royal yacht
HMY Victoria and Albert
. He met Queen Victoria
and the future King George V
.
Then it was off to South America in October 1892, for service on . Keyes was in South American waters until 1896. This was a very happy time in his life, as he had plenty of opportunity for polo and shooting in Argentina
and Uruguay
, where he was made very welcome by the local British residents. He thought of settling in Argentina, but the lady of whom he was enamoured chose another.
The early part of Keyes' tour was spent mostly in Brazil where a Royal Navy squadron was busy protecting British shipping and residents during an 1893–94 naval insurrection
against President Floriano Peixoto
. During the course of his duties, he became friendly with a rebel leader, Rear Admiral
Saldanha da Gama.
After his return home, Keyes served on a training ship for new recruits. He was then given command of , a new destroyer
.
In April 1899, he went to the rescue of a small British force which was attacked and surrounded by irregular Chinese forces while attempting to demarcate the border of the Hong Kong
New Territories
. Keyes went ashore, leading half the landing party, and, while Fame fired on the besiegers, he led the charge which routed the Chinese and freed the troops.
This illustrates a trait Keyes showed all through his life, forcing himself into the centre of any fighting, whenever or wherever it might be.
In those days, the Royal Navy's China Squadron used Hong Kong as a home port during the winter, but went north to Weihaiwei on the Yellow Sea
during the warm summer months. Keyes was there in late May 1900, cursing his luck for being in so out of the way a place while the Second Boer War
was raging in South Africa. Reports soon started to come in to British authorities of disturbances throughout North China, aimed particularly against Chinese Christians, missionaries and European merchants. The anti-foreign agitators were called Boxers, and soon were threatening the foreign legations in Peking
(Beijing) and the European settlement at Tientsin
(Tianjin). Local British naval forces were sent to the aid of these two threatened communities.
, with poorly armed Westerners under siege in Peking and Tientsin, relief was essential, using whatever military forces that happened to be in China. Most British forces were in South Africa, occupied with fighting the Boers, while American forces were occupied fighting the Philippine rebels in the Philippine-American War
. The role of the British China Squadron was vital.
Since both cities were inland, Tientsin some 30 miles (48.3 km) up a shallow river, the Pei Ho
(Hai River), and Peking some 60 miles (96.6 km) further inland, battleships were of no use. But, destroyers could, at high tide, get over the bar and into the Pei Ho. The mouth of the river was defended by three modern Chinese forts (the Taku Forts
), whose gunners were trained by Europeans. Government forces were beginning to side with the Righteous Harmony Society (the Boxers), so any attempt to go up the river might well draw hostile fire.
Four miles upriver from the forts was a modern dockyard and secured to its walls were four brand new German-built Chinese destroyers, the most up to date in Asia. They were fully manned and ready for action. Then came the railhead at Tongku
(Tanggu), the tracks leading to Tientsin and Peking. Somewhat farther up the river was Fort Hsi-cheng (Xicheng).
Roger Keyes arrived off Taku in on 31 May 1900, with the whole squadron coming in two days later. Since Fame drew only 8 feet of water and could cross the bar into Taku during four hours of high tide twice per day, she was used to take messages and passengers back and forth to the railhead. As a result, Keyes became familiar with navigation on the lower stretches of the river. At this point he was able to pass the forts unmolested, though the Chinese gunners trained their guns on his ship.
The British commander, Admiral Edward Seymour
, visited Tientsin on 3 June, and alarmed, ordered a small naval brigade
to its aid. Fame was busy ferrying the troops upriver, past the forts. At the same time, a desperate message arrived from Peking requesting immediate help. Admiral Seymour took a huge gamble and set out by train for Peking from Tientsin in June with 1,000 British sailors and marines. Naval ships of other countries whose nationals were besieged in Peking contributed sailors as well, and soon the Admiral commanded a mixed force of 1,990 British, German, French, Russian, American, Italian, and Austrian sailors. Then the telegraph line to Peking went dead, and Boxers began tearing up the railway track in front of and behind the train well before Peking. Seymour was now in a dangerous situation.
With another junior officer, Commander
Christopher Craddock, he made a land reconnaissance of the forts on 13 June to discover the best line of attack.
On 15 June, Keyes was sent by Admiral James Bruce
, acting commander, to Tientsin to find out the state of defences and what had happened to Admiral Seymour and his force. He went by himself and boarded the train at Tongku, the sole European aboard. Though harassed, he somehow made it and reported to the local British commander, Captain Bayly and his second in command, Commander David Beatty
. Also in Tientsin, helping to fortify the place, was an American, the civilian engineer Herbert Hoover
, later President of the United States. Bayly reported Seymour's precarious situation, with the relief column needing relief itself. He urged Keyes to make it back to Admiral Bruce as quickly as possible to persuade him to seize the Taku forts. Keyes borrowed a revolver and set off. The only train leaving Tientsin headed towards the coast that night was a Chinese troop train, but it had already left by the time he got to the station.
Keyes commandeered a locomotive, bribed the engineer and fireman and set off. When they approached a station en route, they saw that the platform was covered with Chinese soldiers. The railway men lost courage and slowed down, until Keyes put his revolver to the engineer's temple, and they steamed through the trouble. When returning to the ship, he learned that the Chinese had laid mines in the river channel that afternoon.
With some difficulty, Keyes persuaded Bruce of the need to seize the destroyers and the forts. At an international naval gathering next morning, it was agreed to issue an ultimatum to the Chinese commander to hand over the forts temporarily to the Europeans. Should the demands not be agreed to, Keyes was given the task of seizing the destroyers at 2 a.m. the next morning with an attack on the forts to follow at daybreak.
Keyes scouted the Chinese ships in a lighter before the ultimatum expired, and developed a detailed plan to storm the ships and seize them intact. The four Chinese destroyers, moored to the wharf alongside the dry dock, were getting steam up and were fully manned. They displaced 280 tons and could make 32 knots (63 km/h), had six 3-pounder guns as well as two 18 inches (457 mm) torpedo tubes. To face them, Keyes had two slower British destroyers, and (under LFT Colin Mackenzie) which displaced 390 tons and could make 30 knots (58.8 km/h) with an armament of one 12-pounder, five 6-pounders, and two 18 inches (457 mm) torpedo tubes.
The plan was simple. Each British destroyer had a boarding party on its forecastle
armed with pistols and cutlass
es, led by its captain, to seize the first and third destroyers and another boarding party in a whaler
towed behind, led by the executive officer
to seize the second and fourth ships.
But at 1 a.m., the Chinese forts opened fire. Keyes immediately put his plan into action and, under the cover of nightfall, all went off like clockwork. After a few scuffles on deck, the Chinese crews were driven ashore or captured below. There were no British casualties, but several Chinese were killed. He then led a sortie ashore and captured the dry dock, dispersing snipers. His orders were to take the captured ships to Tongku, which he did.
Keyes then escorted the tug past the fort, which did not open fire. The supplies got through to Tientsin. But he was very aware that the fort could cut communications with Tientsin whenever it wished. By the time he got back to Taku, the three forts had been taken.
He attempted without success to convince Admiral Bruce of the need to take the fort at Hsi-cheng. But reports from Tientsin grew more alarming, with Admiral Seymour in a perilous situation, and no word from Peking. He tried in vain to interest the Russians whose small army of 2,000 was slowly making its way from Tongku to Tientsin. The Russians had the only wagons available and since they were shooting every Chinese person they met, coolies were not available. The Russians made it to Tientsin, but were stuck there, with messages arriving from Seymour asking for help. Supplies could no longer get by the fort at Hsi-cheng.
Getting permission for a cautious reconnoitering of the river above Tongku (but under no circumstances to hazard his ship), Keyes loaded the Fame with as many armed men as he could, anchored on an ebb tide
off the fort and sheered into the bank. He sprang ashore, followed by a landing party of 32, armed with rifles, pistols, cutlasses and explosives. Surprise was complete, the main door of the fort was open, and a party of Chinese inside was scattered. The sailors quickly destroyed the gun mountings, and blew up the powder magazine, fleeing back to the ship in the nick of time. The same day, 25 June 1900, Admiral Seymour managed to fight his way back into Tientsin.
However, his luck changed when troops from India arrived for the advance on Peking, led by an old friend of his father, General Sir Alfred Gaselee
. Reluctantly, Seymour agreed to Gaselee's request that Keyes accompany the expedition as a naval aide-de-camp
.
So it came to be that a young naval officer was the first man over the Peking walls, planting a Union Flag
on the top. He was also the first to break through to the legations. For his bravery during the boxer rebellion, Lieutenant Keyes was promoted to the rank of Commander.
After some time to convalesce from diphtheria, Keyes resumed command of HMS Fame, and returned to Hong Kong through a dreadful typhoon. He was transferred home.
and was second in command of the Devonport
Destroyer
Flotilla
. He found the ships' upkeep and training exercises lax and soon his forceful personality made itself felt. He was in command of four of the ships and embarked on a rigorous scheme of training these in all weather using aggressive tactics. He brought in a like minded assistant, Commander Walter Cowan
, who became a fast friend and a formidable warrior in his own right.
His efforts paid off when the ships under his command did very well in naval exercises. This led to an appointment at the Admiralty
in the intelligence section. His role was to become familiar with the navies and coast defences of Italy, Japan, and Russia. In this capacity, he was called on to find out the facts surrounding the infamous Dogger Bank incident
, when Russian ships en route to the Far East to fight the Japanese, opened fire on British fishing ships in the North Sea
. He was called to testify before the International Court of Enquiry held in Paris in January 1905 , and his testimony on this occasion was seen as conclusive. Britain won the dispute and proper compensation was paid.
The time back in England enabled Keyes to pursue his passion for polo, a recreation at which he made the acquaintance of Winston Churchill
. They became and remained good friends for the rest of their lives. He never missed a party attended by Miss Eva Bowlby, whom he had met in March 1903 when his ship had put in at Knoydart, her father's Scottish estate.
In early 1905, Keyes took up an appointment as naval attaché at Rome, Vienna
, Constantinople
and Athens
, with his office at the British Embassy in Rome. On 10 April 1906, he married Eva Bowlby. They honeymooned on the Dalmatian coast and the Greek Isles.
In January 1908, Keyes took up command of , a second class cruiser
serving with the Atlantic Fleet. This was a happy time for crew and captain. In 1910, Keyes was looking forward to command of an armoured cruiser, when he was offered the appointment of Inspecting Captain of Submarines. This was in the days of the infancy of submarine
s and the job was not his first choice. But he agreed and found himself in command of sixty-one undersea vessels.
Keyes had an office in the Admiralty, headquarters at Portsmouth and flotillas of submarines at Devonport
, Harwich
and Dundee
. Each flotilla had a depot ship (an old cruiser). Though the position was initially regarded as a training role, Keyes's energy led it to become an operational command in 1912. The most effective submarines were based at Harwich, and in event of war, Keyes was to assume command of these, reporting directly to the Commander-in-Chief
, Home Fleet. He was to be given, at the outbreak of war, two fast destroyers as part of his command, so as to be able to put to sea regularly to direct his submarines.
Keyes saw the worsening international situation in late July 1914 and cancelled all leave for his men. He moved his vessels and headquarters to Harwich to be closer to Germany and was ready for war when it broke out on 4 August 1914.
force at Harwich
on the south east of England. These submarines were involved in the first Battle of Heligoland Bight, in August 1914.
, commander of the Royal Navy squadron off the Dardanelles during early 1915, Commodore Keyes was heavily involved in the organisation of the Dardanelles Campaign
. In preparation for the forcing of the Dardanelles, Carden's fleet (including the newly dispatched ) began to bombard the outer Turkish defences on 15 February.
However, after 15 days of slow progress, the bombardment was called off due to low ammunition stocks and fears of a newly laid Turkish minefield. Writing to his wife, Keyes expressed frustration at his superior's lack of imagination, arguing that "We must have a clear channel through the minefield for the ships to close to decisive range to hammer the forts and then land men to destroy the guns." Shortly afterwards, he volunteered to take charge of a minesweeping operation intended to clear the way for the bombarding ships.
After dark on 13 March, six trawlers and the Royal Navy cruiser attempted to clear the Kephez minefield. What had been hoped as a turning point in the Dardanelles Campaign turned into an unmitigated failure, as the Turkish mobile artillery pieces battered Keyes' minesweeping squadron. Heavy damage was inflicted on four of the six trawlers, while the Amethyst was badly hit and had her steering gear damaged.
Upon hearing the news of his friend's failure First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill pressed for a greater scope of attack, Vice-Admiral John de Robeck
(Carden's newly appointed successor,) decided to employ his entire battleship force in a daylight assault on the Narrows. The minesweepers were to clear the mines, while the main fleet of Dreadnoughts would serve as protection against the Turkish batteries. Once again, Keyes was chosen to lead the minesweeping force.
. He returned to England immediately and took command of the battleship
, assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron. He was promoted Rear-Admiral on 10 April 1917. In June he was made second in command of the 4th Battle Squadron, under Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee
. He flew his flag aboard , Dudley Pound
, captain.
on the German submarine pens in the Belgian
ports of Zeebrugge
and Ostend
. Keyes ended the war as an acting Vice-Admiral.
, where there was much to do winding down the operation. His second son was born there.
In 1919, he was given command of the new Battle Cruiser Squadron, hoisting his flag at Scapa Flow
in . By 1920, he was flying his flag in the new . Hood deployed briefly to the Baltic Sea
in 1920, when trouble with the Bolsheviks was in the offing, but it soon blew over. When his term in this position was over he went on half pay for a year pending a new appointment as Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. He and his wife took their first holiday in years, including time spent visiting the Belgian Royal family, friends of theirs. Keyes was brought back six months early to take up his new position.
His war services were rewarded by making him a baronet
and giving him an award of £10,000.
In May 1925, Keyes took up a three year appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet
, the premier active command in the Navy. He held the command until the spring of 1928. Many commentators hold that this fleet achieved its peak of efficiency under the restless direction of Keyes. While there, he trained many of the younger officers who would achieve high command in World War II.
In May 1929, Keyes took up the position of Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
, the most important Home Command the Navy has. But, he was very disappointed not to be made First Sea Lord
in 1930. The new Labour Government emphasised disarmament, and Keyes was an outspoken advocate of a strong Navy. Sir Frederick Field was appointed in his stead.
His appointment as Admiral of the Fleet
came in 1930. He hauled down his flag at Portsmouth on 9 June 1931, his last naval command. He was 58.
Keyes and his wife bought a country home at Tingewick, near Buckingham
, close to good fox hunting. On half pay with a large family, he wrote his memoirs to make money. They were a success.
(MP) for North Portsmouth as a Conservative
in January 1934. On the eve of the election, he was shocked to learn of the accidental death of his friend, King Albert I of Belgium
. King George V
asked Keyes to accompany the Prince of Wales to the funeral.
As an MP from the naval town of Portsmouth and a former career officer, it was to be expected that Keyes would concentrate on naval matters in Parliament. He fought disarmament and laboured mightily to have the Fleet Air Arm
put back under the control of the navy. It had been put under the Royal Air Force
in 1918 and was seriously neglected. Britain, from the front rank of naval aviation, had fallen well behind Japan and the United States by the mid-1930s. When the navy finally resumed responsibility in 1937, it was too late to repair the neglect of the interwar years. British aircraft carriers went into World War II equipped with such obsolete planes as the Gloster Gladiator
fighter and the Blackburn Skua
, at a time when the Japanese flew the Mitsubishi Zero. It was through no fault of Keyes. Britain was to pay heavily starting as early as the Norwegian campaign
when the Gloster Gladiator was hopelessly outclassed by German land based aircraft.
Keyes was part of two parliamentary deputations which called on the Prime Minister
, Stanley Baldwin
and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
, Neville Chamberlain
, in the autumn of 1936 to remonstrate with them about the slow pace of British rearmament in the face of the growing threat from Nazi
Germany. The delegation was led by Sir Austen Chamberlain
, a former Foreign Secretary and its most prominent speakers included Winston Churchill
, Leo Amery
and the Marquess of Salisbury
.
He was opposed to the Munich agreement
that Neville Chamberlain
made with Adolf Hitler
in 1938 and, along with Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden
, Louis Spears
and Duff Cooper
, was one of the few who withheld support from the Government on this issue.
He served in the House of Commons
until raised to the peerage as Baron Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover in January 1943.
during the first month of the war, especially deploring the loss of an aircraft carrier
, , on 17 September 1939, sent on an antisubmarine mission he thought foolish. His former Chief of Staff, Dudley Pound
, now First Sea Lord
, was especially wounded by the criticism.
But a job was soon at hand. Keyes had long been friends with the King of the Belgians, Leopold III
. It was his habit to visit the King at his Palace in Brussels from time to time.
Belgium was allied with France after World War I, but in 1937, fearing the rise of Adolf Hitler
, and seeing the French acquiesce in the German occupation of the Rhineland
in 1936, the Belgians announced their conversion to neutrality
. They cut off all the flow of information from the Belgian Army
to the French Army
. But in the fall of 1939 Leopold was worried. What if the Germans attacked France through Belgium? Would the British and French quickly come to his aid? Brussels
was filled with German spies and he dared not openly approach the Allies
, lest he give Hitler a pretext to attack. He would not risk an Allied military conference. He looked for an informal approach and thought of his old friend, now retired. Keyes knew everyone in authority in Britain. Leopold trusted him.
One evening in mid-October 1939, Keyes had a visitor at his London home in Chelsea
. It was an emissary from the King of the Belgians, asking him to visit Brussels right away. Keyes quickly obtained official approval for the visit and was briefed on Britain's position vis-à-vis Belgium.
He started for Belgium immediately and met with the King on 18 October in Brussels. The King once more stated his desire to keep Belgium out of the war and to refrain from any act designed to antagonize Hitler. He felt that his army was much stronger than in August 1914 and could hold off the Germans until the Allied armies could arrive. How soon would the Allies arrive? Keyes responded that the Allies were not prepared to leave France unless they were given specific information on Belgian plans, deployments and defences. He finally persuaded the King that the necessary information and planning could be done quietly between the British military attaché
in Brussels and the King's military advisor, General Van Overstraeten.
This understanding obtained by Keyes was of great value to Allied planning. Keyes was subsequently productively used as a link between Leopold and the British Government. But in January 1940, in the Mechelen Incident
, a German plane losing its way over Belgium, crashed in the country, carrying the German plans for an attack on Belgium. Word of this got out and many Belgians publicly made anti-German statements. Certain Belgian officials carelessly gossiped about Keyes' visits and the French asked for a similar liaison. As a result, German threats grew more menacing and Keyes discontinued his visits.
But he had already obtained permission for Allied staff officers to visit their counterparts in Brussels provided they wore civilian clothing and had civilian passports.
; scope for using small boats and storming positions from the sea, as at Zeebrugge
; and the using of initiative, as during the Boxer Rebellion
. But most of all, Keyes was frustrated by a lack of an aggressive spirit in the war to date. Here was a chance for decisive action.
Keyes reached an independent conclusion that the regaining of Trondheim
was the key to victory in Norway. He immediately advocated the forcing of Trondheim Fjord by battleships and the landing of a military force to recapture the city. Keyes sought an interview with Winston Churchill
, then First Lord of the Admiralty and finally got one on 16 April. He submitted an outline plan to seize the city and offered to lead the expedition. If the Admiralty did not wish to hazard newer ships, he would take in old battleships.
The chiefs of staff reached similar conclusions, with the addition of subsidiary landings north at Namsos
and south at Åndalsnes
. However, they dithered back and forth about whether to send capital ships into Trondheimsfjord. After yes and no, they sent the troops into Namsos and Åndalsnes and then decided not to force the fjord. This was the worst decision as German destroyers dominated the fjord, no airfields were seized to provide air cover and troops earmarked for the centre prong were never landed. The southern prong was soon drawn into fighting further south and the commander of the northern prong, Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart
, who pushed through to the fjord, found his troops shelled by destroyers, attacked from the air and by ski troops, with German ships landing soldiers in his rear.
The combination of Roger Keyes as naval commander and Adrian Carton De Wiart
, V.C.
as military commander at Trondheim might have dramatically changed the course of the Norwegian campaign. Though both men were relatively old for active service, they were both aggressive. Whatever happened, there would have been no half measures.
When both columns were evacuated in early May 1940, Keyes was apoplectic. There was shock in Britain. Parliament gathered to debate matters on 7 and 8 May 1940. The first Backbencher
to speak was Keyes. See Norway Debate
for fuller details.
Making a dramatic entrance in the full uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet
, including medals, Keyes gained the full attention and respect of the House of Commons
. He could speak on this topic with greater authority than anyone else in the country. He said that he dressed in uniform because he wanted to speak for his friends among the fighting sea-going navy, who were very unhappy. It was not the fault of the Navy. Leadership of the war effort was the problem. It is commonly felt that the intervention of Keyes was the beginning of the end for the Government of Neville Chamberlain
. Other speakers followed his attack, notably Leo Amery
and David Lloyd George
. The government fell two days later on 10 May 1940, and Winston Churchill
became Prime Minister
.
, Winston Churchill, and the King of the Belgians, who was also commander-in-chief
of the Belgian forces.
s. His tenure was from 17 July 1940, to 27 October 1941. He found this a frustrating job, as he was dependent on other branches and units of the armed forces for troops, equipment, transport, air cover and information. These commands were naturally not wishing to divert resources to something new and untried.
However Keyes laid the foundations for the Commando's later success. He was 69 years old and it was time to slow down.
and slowly went blind in one eye.
He entered the House of Lords
on being created Baron Keyes on 22 January 1943.
In July 1944, at the request of the Government, Keyes undertook a goodwill tour of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This made sense, for though he is not a well known figure now, during the 1920s and 1930s he was one of the British Empire's greatest heroes.
Keyes and his wife travelled via the United States, staying for a few days en route with Bernard Baruch
on Long Island
. After a visit to an ailing General John Pershing, they went on to Canada, making speeches in Quebec City
, Montreal
, Ottawa
, Toronto
, Winnipeg
, Calgary
, and Vancouver
. From here he went on to Australia and New Zealand, as well as touring war zones in the Pacific. But his health was going fast now. His heart was giving out.
Keyes reached home in April 1945, having logged 35000 miles (56,326.9 km) in his goodwill tour.
, at the end of the war. His life was ebbing away.
Roger Keyes and his wife were happily married and had five children, three daughters and two sons, as well as a number of grandchildren. In later years they maintained homes in the country at Tingewick
, England and in the London district of Chelsea
.
In November 1941, his eldest son, Lieutenant Colonel
Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes
, VC
, MC
, CdeG
, Scots Greys
, was killed in action at Beda Littoria, Libya
, during the famous commando raid on the Headquarters of the General Officer Commanding the German Forces in North Africa - at the time General Erwin Rommel
.
Keyes died on 26 December 1945, at Buckingham
, England. He was 73 years old. His daughter Katherine maintained that his death was caused by pneumonia
brought about by him being flown "too high" in an unpressurised aircraft during the goodwill tour. Keyes always had weak lungs and never recovered from the damage caused in the flight. After a funeral at Westminster Abbey
, he was buried at Dover
in a cemetery reserved for those who fell at Zeebrugge. He is commemorated, along with his eldest son, on a plaque in the Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral.
He was succeeded in the barony by his younger son Roger George Bowlby Keyes.
Keyes's papers were acquired by the British Library in 1978.
Baronet
- 1919
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath 3 June 1930 (KCB - 26 April 1918, CB - 19 June 1911)
Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order - 10 December 1918 (CVO - 30 March 1918, MVO - 24 April 1906)
Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George - 1 January 1916
Distinguished Service Order
- 3 June 1916
Mention in Despatches - 14 March 1916
Commandeur, Legion d'Honneur
(France) - 5 April 1916
Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
- 16 September 1919
Grand Cross, Order of Leopold (Belgium) - 2 August 1921 (Grand Officer - 23 July 1918)
Croix de Guerre 1914-1918
(France) - 23 July 1918
Order of the Iron Crown
, Second Class (Austria-Hungary
) - 24 February 1908
Order of the Medjidieh, Second Class (Turkey) - 4 June 1908
Commander of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus (Italy) - 22 June 1908
Order of the Redeemer, Third Class
(Greece) - 24 June 1909
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Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy)
Admiral of the fleet is the highest rank of the British Royal Navy and other navies, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-10. The rank still exists in the Royal Navy but routine appointments ceased in 1996....
Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, Bt
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
GCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
KCVO
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
CMG
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
RN
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
(4 October 1872 – 26 December 1945) was a noted British admiral, with an active service life that included 19th-century African anti-slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
patrols to the Allied landings in Leyte
Leyte
Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the Leyte Island. Leyte is located west of Samar Island, north of Southern Leyte and south of Biliran...
in World War II. He was regarded throughout the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
as one of the great military heroes of his day.
Early days
Roger Keyes was born on 4 October 1872, at Tundiani Fort on the North-West Frontier ProvinceNorth-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...
of India, where his father commanded the Punjab
Punjab region
The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...
Frontier force, and had achieved a reputation as an heroic figure. He spent his first five years here but, despite being far from the sea, he told his parents "I am going to be an Admiral".
Three years after the family had returned to England Keyes' father was given a new command in India. The parents decided to take the two youngest children with them, but to leave the five oldest, including Roger, in the care of an English country parson and his wife. The accommodations were less than his parents had been led to believe and the younger children were desperately lonely. The parson, however, introduced Keyes to hunting and fishing, which became lifelong passions, particularly hunting. Soon, he was sent to a preparatory school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
at Margate
Margate
-Demography:As of the 2001 UK census, Margate had a population of 40,386.The ethnicity of the town was 97.1% white, 1.0% mixed race, 0.5% black, 0.8% Asian, 0.6% Chinese or other ethnicity....
.
Sailor
The parson's brother was an admiral and stories of the navy were prominent in the household. Keyes wrote his parents of his desire to be a sailor. In 1884 his father, now General Sir Charles Keyes, retired and returned to England. After some discussion and, against his father's wishes, Roger was permitted to join the Royal NavyRoyal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in 1885.
Roger Keyes joined the training establishment, HMS Britannia
HMS Prince of Wales (1860)
HMS Prince of Wales was one of six 121-gun screw-propelled first-rate three-decker line-of-battle ships of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 25 January 1860...
, in the autumn of 1884, at the age of 12.
Keyes was small and delicate in health, but had an iron will. He took up fencing and rackets, sailed whenever he could and was in the thick of every boyhood scrap.
Anti-slavery patrol
In August 1887, Keyes was appointed to , a cruiserCruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
which was flagship of the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
and West Africa Station. He reached Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
on 3 November and began his seagoing life. Raleigh was a full rigged sailing frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
of 5,200 tons with a propeller which could move her along at 16 knots (31 km/h). Under sail, she could make up to 11 knots (22 km/h).
In 1890, Keyes transferred to , a barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
rigged corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
of 2,120 tons. The ship operated from Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
on slavery suppression missions. There was much opportunity for action as small naval launches under junior officers were sent out for weeks at a time to patrol the coast, probing the estuaries and creeks where Arab slavers hid with their cargoes of young women and children, seized from coastal regions in Portuguese East Africa
Portuguese East Africa
Mozambique or Portuguese East Africa was the common name by which the Portuguese Empire's territorial expansion in East Africa was known across different periods of time...
. Often gunfights ensued as the slaver
Slaver
Slaver has several meanings:*One who deals in slaves - see slave trade*A slave ship*Saliva, i.e. either the result or act of drooling as opposed to normal salivation....
s tried to make their escape. He participated in the somewhat farcical 1890 expedition against the Sultan
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
of Wituland
Wituland
Wituland was an approximately territory in East Africa centered on the town of Witu just inland from Indian Ocean port of Lamu north of the mouth of the Tana River in what is now Kenya.-History:Founded in 1858 by the former ruler of the insular Pate sultanate after several abortive moves to the...
.
Around the world
Keyes went back to England on three months' leave which he spent learning horsemanship, and taking up fox huntingFox hunting
Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...
.
Naval examinations followed, not Keyes' strongest suit. However, he managed to scrape through.
During this time, he was attached to various ships in the Channel Fleet
Channel Fleet
The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...
, including a stint in the royal yacht
Royal Yacht
A royal yacht is a ship used by a monarch or a royal family. If the monarch is an emperor the proper term is imperial yacht. Most of them are financed by the government of the country of which the monarch is head...
HMY Victoria and Albert
HMY Victoria and Albert II
HMY Victoria and Albert, a 360 foot steamer launched 16 January 1855, was a Royal Yacht of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom until 1900, owned and operated by the Royal Navy. She displaced 2,470 tons, and could make 15 knots on her paddles...
. He met Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
and the future King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
.
Then it was off to South America in October 1892, for service on . Keyes was in South American waters until 1896. This was a very happy time in his life, as he had plenty of opportunity for polo and shooting in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, where he was made very welcome by the local British residents. He thought of settling in Argentina, but the lady of whom he was enamoured chose another.
The early part of Keyes' tour was spent mostly in Brazil where a Royal Navy squadron was busy protecting British shipping and residents during an 1893–94 naval insurrection
Revolta da Armada
Brazilian Naval Revolts, or the Revoltas da Armada , were armed mutinies promoted mainly by Admirals Custodio de Mello and Saldanha da Gama and their fleet of Brazilian Navy ships against unconstitucional attitudes of the then the central government in Rio de Janeiro.-First revolt:In November 1891,...
against President Floriano Peixoto
Floriano Peixoto
Floriano Vieira de Araújo Peixoto , April 30, 1839, Maceió, Brazil — July 29, 1895, Rio de Janeiro; born in Ipioca , was a Brazilian soldier and politician, a veteran of the War of the Triple Alliance, and the second President of Brazil.-Election and Succession as President:Floriano Peixoto...
. During the course of his duties, he became friendly with a rebel leader, Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
Saldanha da Gama.
After his return home, Keyes served on a training ship for new recruits. He was then given command of , a new destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
.
China
Keyes was then posted out to China to command another destroyer, , soon transferring to a newer ship, .In April 1899, he went to the rescue of a small British force which was attacked and surrounded by irregular Chinese forces while attempting to demarcate the border of the Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
New Territories
New Territories
New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory...
. Keyes went ashore, leading half the landing party, and, while Fame fired on the besiegers, he led the charge which routed the Chinese and freed the troops.
This illustrates a trait Keyes showed all through his life, forcing himself into the centre of any fighting, whenever or wherever it might be.
In those days, the Royal Navy's China Squadron used Hong Kong as a home port during the winter, but went north to Weihaiwei on the Yellow Sea
Yellow Sea
The Yellow Sea is the name given to the northern part of the East China Sea, which is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. It is located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula. Its name comes from the sand particles from Gobi Desert sand storms that turn the surface of the water golden...
during the warm summer months. Keyes was there in late May 1900, cursing his luck for being in so out of the way a place while the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
was raging in South Africa. Reports soon started to come in to British authorities of disturbances throughout North China, aimed particularly against Chinese Christians, missionaries and European merchants. The anti-foreign agitators were called Boxers, and soon were threatening the foreign legations in Peking
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
(Beijing) and the European settlement at Tientsin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
(Tianjin). Local British naval forces were sent to the aid of these two threatened communities.
The Boxer Rebellion: early phase
Early in the Boxer RebellionBoxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
, with poorly armed Westerners under siege in Peking and Tientsin, relief was essential, using whatever military forces that happened to be in China. Most British forces were in South Africa, occupied with fighting the Boers, while American forces were occupied fighting the Philippine rebels in the Philippine-American War
Philippine-American War
The Philippine–American War, also known as the Philippine War of Independence or the Philippine Insurrection , was an armed conflict between a group of Filipino revolutionaries and the United States which arose from the struggle of the First Philippine Republic to gain independence following...
. The role of the British China Squadron was vital.
Since both cities were inland, Tientsin some 30 miles (48.3 km) up a shallow river, the Pei Ho
Hai River
The Hai River , previously called Bai He , is a river in the People's Republic of China which flows through Beijing and Tianjin before emptying into the Yellow Sea at the Bohai Gulf.The Hai River at Tianjin is formed by the confluence of five rivers, the Southern Canal, Ziya...
(Hai River), and Peking some 60 miles (96.6 km) further inland, battleships were of no use. But, destroyers could, at high tide, get over the bar and into the Pei Ho. The mouth of the river was defended by three modern Chinese forts (the Taku Forts
Taku Forts
The Dagu Forts , also called the Peiho Forts are forts located by the Hai River estuary, in Tanggu District, Tianjin municipality, in northeastern China. They are located 60 km southeast of the Tianjin urban center.-History:The first fort was built during the reign of the Ming Jiajing...
), whose gunners were trained by Europeans. Government forces were beginning to side with the Righteous Harmony Society (the Boxers), so any attempt to go up the river might well draw hostile fire.
Four miles upriver from the forts was a modern dockyard and secured to its walls were four brand new German-built Chinese destroyers, the most up to date in Asia. They were fully manned and ready for action. Then came the railhead at Tongku
Tanggu
Tanggu DistrictChinese: s , p Tánggū Qū was a district in the Tianjin municipality on the coast of north China, now part of the newly formed district of Binhai. It is on the Hai River where it enters the Bohai Sea, and is a port for Tianjin, which is about 30 miles upriver...
(Tanggu), the tracks leading to Tientsin and Peking. Somewhat farther up the river was Fort Hsi-cheng (Xicheng).
Roger Keyes arrived off Taku in on 31 May 1900, with the whole squadron coming in two days later. Since Fame drew only 8 feet of water and could cross the bar into Taku during four hours of high tide twice per day, she was used to take messages and passengers back and forth to the railhead. As a result, Keyes became familiar with navigation on the lower stretches of the river. At this point he was able to pass the forts unmolested, though the Chinese gunners trained their guns on his ship.
The British commander, Admiral Edward Seymour
Edward Hobart Seymour
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Hobart Seymour, GCB, OM, GCVO , was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief, China Station.- Early life :...
, visited Tientsin on 3 June, and alarmed, ordered a small naval brigade
Naval Brigade
A Naval Brigade is a body of sailors serving in a ground combat role to augment land forces.-Royal Navy:Within the Royal Navy, a Naval Brigade is a large temporary detachment of Royal Marines and of seamen from the Royal Navy formed to undertake operations on shore, particularly during the mid- to...
to its aid. Fame was busy ferrying the troops upriver, past the forts. At the same time, a desperate message arrived from Peking requesting immediate help. Admiral Seymour took a huge gamble and set out by train for Peking from Tientsin in June with 1,000 British sailors and marines. Naval ships of other countries whose nationals were besieged in Peking contributed sailors as well, and soon the Admiral commanded a mixed force of 1,990 British, German, French, Russian, American, Italian, and Austrian sailors. Then the telegraph line to Peking went dead, and Boxers began tearing up the railway track in front of and behind the train well before Peking. Seymour was now in a dangerous situation.
The Boxer Rebellion: the capture of the Taku flotilla
Keyes, though a junior officer, began to show once again the foresight and leadership which so characterized his career. He determined that the capture of the Taku forts and the seizure of the Chinese destroyers was the key to the relief of Tientsin and Peking.With another junior officer, Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
Christopher Craddock, he made a land reconnaissance of the forts on 13 June to discover the best line of attack.
On 15 June, Keyes was sent by Admiral James Bruce
James Bruce
James Bruce was a Scottish traveller and travel writer who spent more than a dozen years in North Africa and Ethiopia, where he traced the origins of the Blue Nile.-Youth:...
, acting commander, to Tientsin to find out the state of defences and what had happened to Admiral Seymour and his force. He went by himself and boarded the train at Tongku, the sole European aboard. Though harassed, he somehow made it and reported to the local British commander, Captain Bayly and his second in command, Commander David Beatty
David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty
Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was an admiral in the Royal Navy...
. Also in Tientsin, helping to fortify the place, was an American, the civilian engineer Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
, later President of the United States. Bayly reported Seymour's precarious situation, with the relief column needing relief itself. He urged Keyes to make it back to Admiral Bruce as quickly as possible to persuade him to seize the Taku forts. Keyes borrowed a revolver and set off. The only train leaving Tientsin headed towards the coast that night was a Chinese troop train, but it had already left by the time he got to the station.
Keyes commandeered a locomotive, bribed the engineer and fireman and set off. When they approached a station en route, they saw that the platform was covered with Chinese soldiers. The railway men lost courage and slowed down, until Keyes put his revolver to the engineer's temple, and they steamed through the trouble. When returning to the ship, he learned that the Chinese had laid mines in the river channel that afternoon.
With some difficulty, Keyes persuaded Bruce of the need to seize the destroyers and the forts. At an international naval gathering next morning, it was agreed to issue an ultimatum to the Chinese commander to hand over the forts temporarily to the Europeans. Should the demands not be agreed to, Keyes was given the task of seizing the destroyers at 2 a.m. the next morning with an attack on the forts to follow at daybreak.
Keyes scouted the Chinese ships in a lighter before the ultimatum expired, and developed a detailed plan to storm the ships and seize them intact. The four Chinese destroyers, moored to the wharf alongside the dry dock, were getting steam up and were fully manned. They displaced 280 tons and could make 32 knots (63 km/h), had six 3-pounder guns as well as two 18 inches (457 mm) torpedo tubes. To face them, Keyes had two slower British destroyers, and (under LFT Colin Mackenzie) which displaced 390 tons and could make 30 knots (58.8 km/h) with an armament of one 12-pounder, five 6-pounders, and two 18 inches (457 mm) torpedo tubes.
The plan was simple. Each British destroyer had a boarding party on its forecastle
Forecastle
Forecastle refers to the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters...
armed with pistols and cutlass
Cutlass
A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword, with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket shaped guard...
es, led by its captain, to seize the first and third destroyers and another boarding party in a whaler
Whaler
A whaler is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching and/or processing of whales. The former included the whale catcher, a steam or diesel-driven vessel with a harpoon gun mounted at its bows. The latter included such vessels as the sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early...
towed behind, led by the executive officer
Executive officer
An executive officer is generally a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization.-Administrative law:...
to seize the second and fourth ships.
But at 1 a.m., the Chinese forts opened fire. Keyes immediately put his plan into action and, under the cover of nightfall, all went off like clockwork. After a few scuffles on deck, the Chinese crews were driven ashore or captured below. There were no British casualties, but several Chinese were killed. He then led a sortie ashore and captured the dry dock, dispersing snipers. His orders were to take the captured ships to Tongku, which he did.
The Boxer Rebellion: The fort at Hsi-cheng
He was about to return downstream from Tongku to assist in the attack on the Taku forts, when a young British naval officer in charge of a river tug with stores and ammunition for the besieged troops in Tientsin came aboard. His orders were to make a run for Tientsin at daybreak, but his Chinese crew refused to leave for fear of being sunk by the guns of the fort upstream at Hsi-cheng. Inquiries with a Japanese gunboat captain told him that the fort had six modern 6-inch, quick-fire guns, more than a match for Keyes's two small destroyers.Keyes then escorted the tug past the fort, which did not open fire. The supplies got through to Tientsin. But he was very aware that the fort could cut communications with Tientsin whenever it wished. By the time he got back to Taku, the three forts had been taken.
He attempted without success to convince Admiral Bruce of the need to take the fort at Hsi-cheng. But reports from Tientsin grew more alarming, with Admiral Seymour in a perilous situation, and no word from Peking. He tried in vain to interest the Russians whose small army of 2,000 was slowly making its way from Tongku to Tientsin. The Russians had the only wagons available and since they were shooting every Chinese person they met, coolies were not available. The Russians made it to Tientsin, but were stuck there, with messages arriving from Seymour asking for help. Supplies could no longer get by the fort at Hsi-cheng.
Getting permission for a cautious reconnoitering of the river above Tongku (but under no circumstances to hazard his ship), Keyes loaded the Fame with as many armed men as he could, anchored on an ebb tide
Ebb Tide
"Ebb Tide" is a popular song, written in 1953 by the lyricist Carl Sigman and composer Robert Maxwell.-Recordings:* The best-known versions are by Frank Chacksfield & His Orchestra , Vic Damone , Roy Hamilton , Frank Sinatra , The Platters , Lenny Welch and the Righteous Brothers...
off the fort and sheered into the bank. He sprang ashore, followed by a landing party of 32, armed with rifles, pistols, cutlasses and explosives. Surprise was complete, the main door of the fort was open, and a party of Chinese inside was scattered. The sailors quickly destroyed the gun mountings, and blew up the powder magazine, fleeing back to the ship in the nick of time. The same day, 25 June 1900, Admiral Seymour managed to fight his way back into Tientsin.
The Boxer Rebellion: Tientsin and Peking
After all his exploits, Keyes still managed to get himself into the thick of fighting throughout the rest of the campaign. He managed to obtain leave from the Fame for two days to run a tug and lighter with stores to Tientsin. While there, he joined an attack on some Chinese batteries at the Tientsin race course, being very impressed by the Japanese troops who led it. Further requests for leave to join the fighting were frostily rejected by Admiral Seymour.However, his luck changed when troops from India arrived for the advance on Peking, led by an old friend of his father, General Sir Alfred Gaselee
Alfred Gaselee
Sir Alfred Gaselee, GCB, GCIE, was a soldier who reached the rank of General in the British Indian Army.-Personal life:...
. Reluctantly, Seymour agreed to Gaselee's request that Keyes accompany the expedition as a naval aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
.
So it came to be that a young naval officer was the first man over the Peking walls, planting a Union Flag
Union Flag
The Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack, is the flag of the United Kingdom. It retains an official or semi-official status in some Commonwealth Realms; for example, it is known as the Royal Union Flag in Canada. It is also used as an official flag in some of the smaller British overseas...
on the top. He was also the first to break through to the legations. For his bravery during the boxer rebellion, Lieutenant Keyes was promoted to the rank of Commander.
After some time to convalesce from diphtheria, Keyes resumed command of HMS Fame, and returned to Hong Kong through a dreadful typhoon. He was transferred home.
Destroyers, Admiralty, Rome, and submarines
After a few months leave at home, Keyes was appointed to the command of a new destroyer, , a 360-ton 30 knots (58.8 km/h) ship, similar to the Fame. He was stationed at PortsmouthPortsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
and was second in command of the Devonport
HMNB Devonport
Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...
Destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
Flotilla
Flotilla
A flotilla , or naval flotilla, is a formation of small warships that may be part of a larger fleet. A flotilla is usually composed of a homogeneous group of the same class of warship, such as frigates, destroyers, torpedo boats, submarines, gunboats, or minesweepers...
. He found the ships' upkeep and training exercises lax and soon his forceful personality made itself felt. He was in command of four of the ships and embarked on a rigorous scheme of training these in all weather using aggressive tactics. He brought in a like minded assistant, Commander Walter Cowan
Walter Cowan
Admiral Sir Walter Henry Cowan, 1st Baronet, KCB, MVO, DSO & & Bar , known as Tich Cowan, was a British Royal Navy admiral who saw service in both World War I and World War II; in the latter he was one of the oldest British servicemen on active duty.-Early days:Cowan was born in Crickhowell,...
, who became a fast friend and a formidable warrior in his own right.
His efforts paid off when the ships under his command did very well in naval exercises. This led to an appointment at the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
in the intelligence section. His role was to become familiar with the navies and coast defences of Italy, Japan, and Russia. In this capacity, he was called on to find out the facts surrounding the infamous Dogger Bank incident
Dogger Bank incident
The Dogger Bank incident occurred when the Russian Baltic Fleet mistook some British trawlers at Dogger Bank for an Imperial Japanese Navy force....
, when Russian ships en route to the Far East to fight the Japanese, opened fire on British fishing ships in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. He was called to testify before the International Court of Enquiry held in Paris in January 1905 , and his testimony on this occasion was seen as conclusive. Britain won the dispute and proper compensation was paid.
The time back in England enabled Keyes to pursue his passion for polo, a recreation at which he made the acquaintance of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. They became and remained good friends for the rest of their lives. He never missed a party attended by Miss Eva Bowlby, whom he had met in March 1903 when his ship had put in at Knoydart, her father's Scottish estate.
In early 1905, Keyes took up an appointment as naval attaché at Rome, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, with his office at the British Embassy in Rome. On 10 April 1906, he married Eva Bowlby. They honeymooned on the Dalmatian coast and the Greek Isles.
In January 1908, Keyes took up command of , a second class cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
serving with the Atlantic Fleet. This was a happy time for crew and captain. In 1910, Keyes was looking forward to command of an armoured cruiser, when he was offered the appointment of Inspecting Captain of Submarines. This was in the days of the infancy of submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s and the job was not his first choice. But he agreed and found himself in command of sixty-one undersea vessels.
Keyes had an office in the Admiralty, headquarters at Portsmouth and flotillas of submarines at Devonport
HMNB Devonport
Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...
, Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
and Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
. Each flotilla had a depot ship (an old cruiser). Though the position was initially regarded as a training role, Keyes's energy led it to become an operational command in 1912. The most effective submarines were based at Harwich, and in event of war, Keyes was to assume command of these, reporting directly to the Commander-in-Chief
Commander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
, Home Fleet. He was to be given, at the outbreak of war, two fast destroyers as part of his command, so as to be able to put to sea regularly to direct his submarines.
Keyes saw the worsening international situation in late July 1914 and cancelled all leave for his men. He moved his vessels and headquarters to Harwich to be closer to Germany and was ready for war when it broke out on 4 August 1914.
World War I: submariner
When World War I broke out, Keyes took command of the submarineSubmarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
force at Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
on the south east of England. These submarines were involved in the first Battle of Heligoland Bight, in August 1914.
World War I: The Dardanelles
As Naval Chief of Staff to Vice-Admiral Sackville CardenSackville Carden
Admiral Sir Sackville Hamilton Carden KCMG was a British admiral who, in cooperation with the French Navy, commanded British naval forces in the Mediterranean Sea during World War I.-Early life:...
, commander of the Royal Navy squadron off the Dardanelles during early 1915, Commodore Keyes was heavily involved in the organisation of the Dardanelles Campaign
Naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign
The naval operations in the Dardanelles Campaign of the First World War were mainly carried out by the Royal Navy with substantial support from the French and minor contributions from Russia and Australia. The Dardanelles Campaign began as a purely naval operation...
. In preparation for the forcing of the Dardanelles, Carden's fleet (including the newly dispatched ) began to bombard the outer Turkish defences on 15 February.
However, after 15 days of slow progress, the bombardment was called off due to low ammunition stocks and fears of a newly laid Turkish minefield. Writing to his wife, Keyes expressed frustration at his superior's lack of imagination, arguing that "We must have a clear channel through the minefield for the ships to close to decisive range to hammer the forts and then land men to destroy the guns." Shortly afterwards, he volunteered to take charge of a minesweeping operation intended to clear the way for the bombarding ships.
After dark on 13 March, six trawlers and the Royal Navy cruiser attempted to clear the Kephez minefield. What had been hoped as a turning point in the Dardanelles Campaign turned into an unmitigated failure, as the Turkish mobile artillery pieces battered Keyes' minesweeping squadron. Heavy damage was inflicted on four of the six trawlers, while the Amethyst was badly hit and had her steering gear damaged.
Upon hearing the news of his friend's failure First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill pressed for a greater scope of attack, Vice-Admiral John de Robeck
John de Robeck
Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Michael de Robeck, 1st Baronet GCB, GCMG, GCVO was an admiral in the British Royal Navy who commanded the Allied naval force in the Dardanelles during World War I....
(Carden's newly appointed successor,) decided to employ his entire battleship force in a daylight assault on the Narrows. The minesweepers were to clear the mines, while the main fleet of Dreadnoughts would serve as protection against the Turkish batteries. Once again, Keyes was chosen to lead the minesweeping force.
World War I: The Grand Fleet and Admiralty plans
After the heartbreak of the Dardanelles operation, Keyes applied for a transfer back to the Grand Fleet. He was in Salonika finishing up when news arrived of the Battle of JutlandBattle of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland was a naval battle between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet during the First World War. The battle was fought on 31 May and 1 June 1916 in the North Sea near Jutland, Denmark. It was the largest naval battle and the only...
. He returned to England immediately and took command of the battleship
Battleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
, assigned to the 2nd Battle Squadron. He was promoted Rear-Admiral on 10 April 1917. In June he was made second in command of the 4th Battle Squadron, under Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee
Doveton Sturdee
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick Charles Doveton Sturdee, 1st Baronet, GCB, KCMG, CVO was a British admiral.-Naval career:...
. He flew his flag aboard , Dudley Pound
Dudley Pound
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound GCB OM GCVO RN was a British naval officer who served as First Sea Lord, professional head of the Royal Navy from June 1939 to September 1943.- Early life :...
, captain.
World War I: The Dover Patrol
On 1 January 1918, Keyes took over command of The Dover Patrol. Prior to Keyes, the Dover Patrol had been commanded by Admiral Bacon and had succeeded in sinking two German U-Boats in the English Channel in the previous two years, but out of 88,000 crossings by ships only five had been torpedoed and one sunk by gunfire. After Keyes took control, he altered tactics, and the Dover Patrol sank five U-Boats in the first month after implementation of Keyes' plan.World War I: Zeebrugge and Ostend
Toward the end of the war, he planned and led the famous 1918 raidsZeebrugge Raid
The Zeebrugge Raid, which took place on 23 April 1918, was an attempt by the British Royal Navy to neutralize the key Belgian port of Bruges-Zeebrugge...
on the German submarine pens in the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
ports of Zeebrugge
Zeebrugge
Zeebrugge is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with hotels, cafés, a marina and a beach.-Location:...
and Ostend
Second Ostend Raid
The Second Ostend Raid was the latter of two failed attempts made during the spring of 1918 by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy to block the channels accessing the Belgian port of Ostend as a part of their conflict with the German Empire during World War I...
. Keyes ended the war as an acting Vice-Admiral.
Peacetime sailor again
For the first few months of peace Keyes remained at DoverDover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
, where there was much to do winding down the operation. His second son was born there.
In 1919, he was given command of the new Battle Cruiser Squadron, hoisting his flag at Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow
right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...
in . By 1920, he was flying his flag in the new . Hood deployed briefly to the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
in 1920, when trouble with the Bolsheviks was in the offing, but it soon blew over. When his term in this position was over he went on half pay for a year pending a new appointment as Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. He and his wife took their first holiday in years, including time spent visiting the Belgian Royal family, friends of theirs. Keyes was brought back six months early to take up his new position.
His war services were rewarded by making him a baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
and giving him an award of £10,000.
In May 1925, Keyes took up a three year appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet
Mediterranean Fleet
Several countries have or have had a Mediterranean Fleet in their navy. See:* Mediterranean Fleet * French Mediterranean Fleet* Mediterranean Squadron * United States Sixth Fleet...
, the premier active command in the Navy. He held the command until the spring of 1928. Many commentators hold that this fleet achieved its peak of efficiency under the restless direction of Keyes. While there, he trained many of the younger officers who would achieve high command in World War II.
In May 1929, Keyes took up the position of Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. Portsmouth Command was a name given to the units, establishments, and staff operating under the post.-History:...
, the most important Home Command the Navy has. But, he was very disappointed not to be made First Sea Lord
First Sea Lord
The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...
in 1930. The new Labour Government emphasised disarmament, and Keyes was an outspoken advocate of a strong Navy. Sir Frederick Field was appointed in his stead.
His appointment as Admiral of the Fleet
Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy)
Admiral of the fleet is the highest rank of the British Royal Navy and other navies, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-10. The rank still exists in the Royal Navy but routine appointments ceased in 1996....
came in 1930. He hauled down his flag at Portsmouth on 9 June 1931, his last naval command. He was 58.
Keyes and his wife bought a country home at Tingewick, near Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
, close to good fox hunting. On half pay with a large family, he wrote his memoirs to make money. They were a success.
Member of Parliament and the fight for a strong navy
Sir Roger Keyes was elected Member of ParliamentMember of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) for North Portsmouth as a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
in January 1934. On the eve of the election, he was shocked to learn of the accidental death of his friend, King Albert I of Belgium
Albert I of Belgium
Albert I reigned as King of the Belgians from 1909 until 1934.-Early life:Born Albert Léopold Clément Marie Meinrad in Brussels, he was the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and his wife, Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen...
. King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
asked Keyes to accompany the Prince of Wales to the funeral.
As an MP from the naval town of Portsmouth and a former career officer, it was to be expected that Keyes would concentrate on naval matters in Parliament. He fought disarmament and laboured mightily to have the Fleet Air Arm
Fleet Air Arm
The Fleet Air Arm is the branch of the British Royal Navy responsible for the operation of naval aircraft. The Fleet Air Arm currently operates the AgustaWestland Merlin, Westland Sea King and Westland Lynx helicopters...
put back under the control of the navy. It had been put under the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in 1918 and was seriously neglected. Britain, from the front rank of naval aviation, had fallen well behind Japan and the United States by the mid-1930s. When the navy finally resumed responsibility in 1937, it was too late to repair the neglect of the interwar years. British aircraft carriers went into World War II equipped with such obsolete planes as the Gloster Gladiator
Gloster Gladiator
The Gloster Gladiator was a British-built biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s. It was the RAF's last biplane fighter aircraft and was rendered obsolete by newer monoplane designs even as it...
fighter and the Blackburn Skua
Blackburn Skua
The Blackburn B-24 Skua was a carrier-based low-wing, two-seater, single-radial engine aircraft operated by the British Fleet Air Arm which combined the functions of a dive bomber and fighter. It was designed in the mid-1930s, and saw service in the early part of the Second World War...
, at a time when the Japanese flew the Mitsubishi Zero. It was through no fault of Keyes. Britain was to pay heavily starting as early as the Norwegian campaign
Norwegian Campaign
The Norwegian Campaign was a military campaign that was fought in Norway during the Second World War between the Allies and Germany, after the latter's invasion of the country. In April 1940, the United Kingdom and France came to Norway's aid with an expeditionary force...
when the Gloster Gladiator was hopelessly outclassed by German land based aircraft.
Keyes was part of two parliamentary deputations which called on the Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
, Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin
Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC was a British Conservative politician, who dominated the government in his country between the two world wars...
and the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
, Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
, in the autumn of 1936 to remonstrate with them about the slow pace of British rearmament in the face of the growing threat from Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
Germany. The delegation was led by Sir Austen Chamberlain
Austen Chamberlain
Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, KG was a British statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and half-brother of Neville Chamberlain.- Early life and career :...
, a former Foreign Secretary and its most prominent speakers included Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, Leo Amery
Leopold Stennett Amery
Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery CH , usually known as Leo Amery or L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist, noted for his interest in military preparedness, India, and the British Empire.-Early life:Leopold Amery was born in Gorakhpur, India to an English...
and the Marquess of Salisbury
James Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury
James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, CB, PC , known as Viscount Cranborne from 1868 to 1903, was a British statesman.-Background and education:...
.
He was opposed to the Munich agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
that Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
made with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
in 1938 and, along with Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
, Louis Spears
Louis Spears
Major-General Sir Edward Louis Spears, 1st Baronet, KBE, CB, MC was a British Army officer and Member of Parliament noted for his role as a liaison officer between British and French forces in two world wars....
and Duff Cooper
Duff Cooper
Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich GCMG, DSO, PC , known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician, diplomat and author. He wrote six books, including an autobiography, Old Men Forget, and a biography of Talleyrand...
, was one of the few who withheld support from the Government on this issue.
He served in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
until raised to the peerage as Baron Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover in January 1943.
World War II: Belgian mission: part one
When World War II broke out, Keyes was very anxious to obtain active service. But all senior positions were filled, he was just short of his 67th birthday and he had made enemies with criticisms of senior naval officers in the period before the war. He continued with his "suggestions" in ParliamentParliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
during the first month of the war, especially deploring the loss of an aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
, , on 17 September 1939, sent on an antisubmarine mission he thought foolish. His former Chief of Staff, Dudley Pound
Dudley Pound
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound GCB OM GCVO RN was a British naval officer who served as First Sea Lord, professional head of the Royal Navy from June 1939 to September 1943.- Early life :...
, now First Sea Lord
First Sea Lord
The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...
, was especially wounded by the criticism.
But a job was soon at hand. Keyes had long been friends with the King of the Belgians, Leopold III
Leopold III of Belgium
Leopold III reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the Heir Apparent,...
. It was his habit to visit the King at his Palace in Brussels from time to time.
Belgium was allied with France after World War I, but in 1937, fearing the rise of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, and seeing the French acquiesce in the German occupation of the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
in 1936, the Belgians announced their conversion to neutrality
Neutral country
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
. They cut off all the flow of information from the Belgian Army
Belgian Army
The Land Component is organised using the concept of capacities, whereby units are gathered together according to their function and material. Within this framework, there are five capacities: the command capacity, the combat capacity, the support capacity, the services capacity and the training...
to the French Army
French Army
The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...
. But in the fall of 1939 Leopold was worried. What if the Germans attacked France through Belgium? Would the British and French quickly come to his aid? Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
was filled with German spies and he dared not openly approach the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
, lest he give Hitler a pretext to attack. He would not risk an Allied military conference. He looked for an informal approach and thought of his old friend, now retired. Keyes knew everyone in authority in Britain. Leopold trusted him.
One evening in mid-October 1939, Keyes had a visitor at his London home in Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
. It was an emissary from the King of the Belgians, asking him to visit Brussels right away. Keyes quickly obtained official approval for the visit and was briefed on Britain's position vis-à-vis Belgium.
He started for Belgium immediately and met with the King on 18 October in Brussels. The King once more stated his desire to keep Belgium out of the war and to refrain from any act designed to antagonize Hitler. He felt that his army was much stronger than in August 1914 and could hold off the Germans until the Allied armies could arrive. How soon would the Allies arrive? Keyes responded that the Allies were not prepared to leave France unless they were given specific information on Belgian plans, deployments and defences. He finally persuaded the King that the necessary information and planning could be done quietly between the British military attaché
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
in Brussels and the King's military advisor, General Van Overstraeten.
This understanding obtained by Keyes was of great value to Allied planning. Keyes was subsequently productively used as a link between Leopold and the British Government. But in January 1940, in the Mechelen Incident
Mechelen Incident
The Mechelen Incident of 10 January 1940, also known as the Mechelen affair, was an event during the Phoney War. A German aircraft with an officer on-board carrying the plans for Fall Gelb , a German attack on the Low Countries, crash-landed in neutral Belgium near Vucht, in the modern-day...
, a German plane losing its way over Belgium, crashed in the country, carrying the German plans for an attack on Belgium. Word of this got out and many Belgians publicly made anti-German statements. Certain Belgian officials carelessly gossiped about Keyes' visits and the French asked for a similar liaison. As a result, German threats grew more menacing and Keyes discontinued his visits.
But he had already obtained permission for Allied staff officers to visit their counterparts in Brussels provided they wore civilian clothing and had civilian passports.
World War II: Norway and the fall of Chamberlain
The German assault on Norway on 9 April 1940, roused Keyes. It was a campaign that related to much of his experience — amphibious landings, as at the DardanellesDardanelles
The Dardanelles , formerly known as the Hellespont, is a narrow strait in northwestern Turkey connecting the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It is one of the Turkish Straits, along with its counterpart the Bosphorus. It is located at approximately...
; scope for using small boats and storming positions from the sea, as at Zeebrugge
Zeebrugge
Zeebrugge is a village on the coast of Belgium and a subdivision of Bruges, for which it is the modern port. Zeebrugge serves as both the international port of Bruges-Zeebrugge and a seafront resort with hotels, cafés, a marina and a beach.-Location:...
; and the using of initiative, as during the Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
. But most of all, Keyes was frustrated by a lack of an aggressive spirit in the war to date. Here was a chance for decisive action.
Keyes reached an independent conclusion that the regaining of Trondheim
Trondheim
Trondheim , historically, Nidaros and Trondhjem, is a city and municipality in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. With a population of 173,486, it is the third most populous municipality and city in the country, although the fourth largest metropolitan area. It is the administrative centre of...
was the key to victory in Norway. He immediately advocated the forcing of Trondheim Fjord by battleships and the landing of a military force to recapture the city. Keyes sought an interview with Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
, then First Lord of the Admiralty and finally got one on 16 April. He submitted an outline plan to seize the city and offered to lead the expedition. If the Admiralty did not wish to hazard newer ships, he would take in old battleships.
The chiefs of staff reached similar conclusions, with the addition of subsidiary landings north at Namsos
Namsos campaign
In April and early May, 1940 Namsos and its surrounding area were the scene of heavy fighting between Anglo-French, Polish and Norwegian naval and military forces on the one hand, and German military, naval and air forces on the other...
and south at Åndalsnes
Battle of Åndalsnes
The Battle of Åndalsnes took place in Åndalsnes in Romsdal, Norway in 1940 during the Norwegian Campaign of World War II.After the German invasion of Norway in April 1940, British troops landed in Åndalsnes as part of a pincer movement to take mid-Norwegian city Trondheim...
. However, they dithered back and forth about whether to send capital ships into Trondheimsfjord. After yes and no, they sent the troops into Namsos and Åndalsnes and then decided not to force the fjord. This was the worst decision as German destroyers dominated the fjord, no airfields were seized to provide air cover and troops earmarked for the centre prong were never landed. The southern prong was soon drawn into fighting further south and the commander of the northern prong, Lieutenant General Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart
Adrian Carton de Wiart
Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO , was a British officer of Belgian and Irish descent...
, who pushed through to the fjord, found his troops shelled by destroyers, attacked from the air and by ski troops, with German ships landing soldiers in his rear.
The combination of Roger Keyes as naval commander and Adrian Carton De Wiart
Adrian Carton de Wiart
Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart VC, KBE, CB, CMG, DSO , was a British officer of Belgian and Irish descent...
, V.C.
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
as military commander at Trondheim might have dramatically changed the course of the Norwegian campaign. Though both men were relatively old for active service, they were both aggressive. Whatever happened, there would have been no half measures.
When both columns were evacuated in early May 1940, Keyes was apoplectic. There was shock in Britain. Parliament gathered to debate matters on 7 and 8 May 1940. The first Backbencher
Backbencher
In Westminster parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a Member of Parliament or a legislator who does not hold governmental office and is not a Front Bench spokesperson in the Opposition...
to speak was Keyes. See Norway Debate
Norway Debate
The Norway Debate, sometimes called the Narvik Debate, was a famous debate in the British House of Commons that took place in May 1940. It led to the formation of a widely-based National Government led by Winston Churchill which was to govern Britain until the end of World War II in Europe...
for fuller details.
Making a dramatic entrance in the full uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet
Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy)
Admiral of the fleet is the highest rank of the British Royal Navy and other navies, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-10. The rank still exists in the Royal Navy but routine appointments ceased in 1996....
, including medals, Keyes gained the full attention and respect of the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
. He could speak on this topic with greater authority than anyone else in the country. He said that he dressed in uniform because he wanted to speak for his friends among the fighting sea-going navy, who were very unhappy. It was not the fault of the Navy. Leadership of the war effort was the problem. It is commonly felt that the intervention of Keyes was the beginning of the end for the Government of Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain
Arthur Neville Chamberlain FRS was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. Chamberlain is best known for his appeasement foreign policy, and in particular for his signing of the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding the...
. Other speakers followed his attack, notably Leo Amery
Leopold Stennett Amery
Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery CH , usually known as Leo Amery or L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist, noted for his interest in military preparedness, India, and the British Empire.-Early life:Leopold Amery was born in Gorakhpur, India to an English...
and David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
. The government fell two days later on 10 May 1940, and Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
became Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
.
The Belgian mission: part two
When the Germans invaded Belgium on 10 May 1940, Keyes was sent as personal liaison between the Prime MinisterPrime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, Winston Churchill, and the King of the Belgians, who was also commander-in-chief
Commander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
of the Belgian forces.
World War II: the Commandos
During World War II, Keyes was the first Director of Combined Operations, the CommandoCommando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
s. His tenure was from 17 July 1940, to 27 October 1941. He found this a frustrating job, as he was dependent on other branches and units of the armed forces for troops, equipment, transport, air cover and information. These commands were naturally not wishing to divert resources to something new and untried.
However Keyes laid the foundations for the Commando's later success. He was 69 years old and it was time to slow down.
Politics and goodwill tour
Keyes remained active in the House of Commons after leaving the Commandos and also spent time working for the National Savings Campaign. During this period, he suffered a detached retinaRetina
The vertebrate retina is a light-sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
and slowly went blind in one eye.
He entered the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
on being created Baron Keyes on 22 January 1943.
In July 1944, at the request of the Government, Keyes undertook a goodwill tour of Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This made sense, for though he is not a well known figure now, during the 1920s and 1930s he was one of the British Empire's greatest heroes.
Keyes and his wife travelled via the United States, staying for a few days en route with Bernard Baruch
Bernard Baruch
Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters and became a philanthropist.-Early life...
on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
. After a visit to an ailing General John Pershing, they went on to Canada, making speeches in Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, and Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. From here he went on to Australia and New Zealand, as well as touring war zones in the Pacific. But his health was going fast now. His heart was giving out.
Keyes reached home in April 1945, having logged 35000 miles (56,326.9 km) in his goodwill tour.
Family life and last days
Ill health prevented him doing much to help his beleaguered old friend, Léopold III of BelgiumLeopold III of Belgium
Leopold III reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the Heir Apparent,...
, at the end of the war. His life was ebbing away.
Roger Keyes and his wife were happily married and had five children, three daughters and two sons, as well as a number of grandchildren. In later years they maintained homes in the country at Tingewick
Tingewick
Tingewick is a village and civil parish about west of Buckingham in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, England. The parish is bounded to the north by the River Great Ouse, to the east by a tributary of the Great Ouse, to the west by the county boundary with Oxfordshire and to the...
, England and in the London district of Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
.
In November 1941, his eldest son, Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes
Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes
Lieutenant-Colonel Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes, VC, MC was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces...
, VC
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
, MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
, CdeG
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
, Scots Greys
Scots Greys
The Royal Scots Greys was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1707 until 1971, when they amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers to form The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards ....
, was killed in action at Beda Littoria, Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
, during the famous commando raid on the Headquarters of the General Officer Commanding the German Forces in North Africa - at the time General Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
.
Keyes died on 26 December 1945, at Buckingham
Buckingham
Buckingham is a town situated in north Buckinghamshire, England, close to the borders of Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire. The town has a population of 11,572 ,...
, England. He was 73 years old. His daughter Katherine maintained that his death was caused by pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
brought about by him being flown "too high" in an unpressurised aircraft during the goodwill tour. Keyes always had weak lungs and never recovered from the damage caused in the flight. After a funeral at Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
, he was buried at Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
in a cemetery reserved for those who fell at Zeebrugge. He is commemorated, along with his eldest son, on a plaque in the Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral.
He was succeeded in the barony by his younger son Roger George Bowlby Keyes.
Keyes's papers were acquired by the British Library in 1978.
Honours and awards
Barony - 22 January 1943Baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
- 1919
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath 3 June 1930 (KCB - 26 April 1918, CB - 19 June 1911)
Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order - 10 December 1918 (CVO - 30 March 1918, MVO - 24 April 1906)
Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George - 1 January 1916
Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
- 3 June 1916
Mention in Despatches - 14 March 1916
Commandeur, Legion d'Honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
(France) - 5 April 1916
Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
The Distinguished Service Medal is the highest non-valorous military and civilian decoration of the United States military which is issued for exceptionally meritorious service to the government of the United States in either a senior government service position or as a senior officer of the United...
- 16 September 1919
Grand Cross, Order of Leopold (Belgium) - 2 August 1921 (Grand Officer - 23 July 1918)
Croix de Guerre 1914-1918
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
(France) - 23 July 1918
Order of the Iron Crown
Order of the Iron Crown (Austria)
The Austrian Imperial Order of the Iron Crown , was restablished in 1815 by Emperor Franz I. The Order of the Iron Crown had previously been an order of the Napoleanic Kingdom of Italy.-History:...
, Second Class (Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
) - 24 February 1908
Order of the Medjidieh, Second Class (Turkey) - 4 June 1908
Commander of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus (Italy) - 22 June 1908
Order of the Redeemer, Third Class
Order of the Redeemer
The Order of the Redeemer , also known as the Order of the Savior, is an order of Greece. The Order of the Redeemer is the oldest and highest decoration awarded by the modern Greek state.- History :...
(Greece) - 24 June 1909
Further reading
-
- 1914–1918 (1979), ISBN 0-04-942164-6
- 1919–1938 (1981), ISBN 0-04-942165-4
- 1939–1945 (1981), ISBN 0-04-942172-7
- Keyes, Roger. Naval Memoirs, 2 vols. London: Thornton Butterworth, 1934 and 1935.
- Keyes, Roger. Adventures Ashore and Afloat. London: George Harrap & Co., 1939.
- Keyes, Roger. The Fight For Gallipoli. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1941.
- Keyes, Roger. Amphibious Warfare and Combined Operations, Lees Knowles Lectures. Cambridge: University Press, 1943.
- Aspinall-Oglander, Cecil. Roger Keyes. London: The Hogarth Press, 1951.
- St John-McAlister, Michael. 'The Keyes Papers at the British Library', Electronic British Library Journal
External links
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