JUTLAND V.C.

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 1, 26 September 1939, Page 8

JUTLAND V.C.

Death Of Rear-Admiral E. B. S. Bingham THE GALLANT NESTOR

(By

5.D.W..)

The death is announced, in a Daventry broadcast, at Ute age of SS, of RearAdmiral the Hon. Barry Bingham, V.C. He won the Victoria Cross in the Battle of Jutland on May 31, 1016, in command of the destroyer Nestor. As a lieutenant-commander, he was appointed from the Admiralty yacht Enchantress, on August 1, 1014, to the battle-cruiser invincible, in which ship he was present at the action in the Heligoland Bight on August 28, 1014, and at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on December 8, 1014, when von Spec’s Pacific Squadron was destroyed. Promoted commander on December 31, .1914, Bingham was appointed to command the destroyer Hornet, belonging to the First Flotilla, based at Harwich. In October, 1915, the Hornet and the Jackal, tit great risk to themselves, went alongside 11.M.5. Argyll, an armoured cruiser, which was wrecked in a heavy gale on Inchcape Rock, off the coast of Forfarshire, and rescued the whole of her crew under very trving and difficult circumstances. On April 30, 1916, Commander Bingham was appointed to command the new destroyer, 11.M.5. Nestor, iu which, a month later, he won the Victoria Cross in the Battle of Jutland. In his dispatch dealing with that memorable action, Admiral Beatty said: "Eight destroyers of the 13th Flotilla, with two of the 10th and two of the 9th Flotilla, having been ordered to attack the enemy with torpedoes when opportunity offered, moved out at 4.15 p.m., simultaneously with a simitar movement on the part of the enemy. . . . They intercepted an enemy force consisting of a light cruiser and fifteen destroyers. A tierce engagement ensued at close quarters, with the result that the enemy were forced to retire on their battle-cruisers, having lost two destroyers sunk and having their torpedo attack frustrated. . . . “Nestor, Nomad and Nicator, gallently led by Commander the Hon. Edward B. S. Bingham, of Nestor, pressed home their attack on the battle-cruisers and tired two torpedoes at a range of 6000 and 5000 yards, being subjected to a heavy live from the enemy. . . . “Nomad was badly hit. . . . Subsequently Nestor and Nicator altered course to S.E. and in a short time found themselves within close range. Nothing daunted, though tinder a terrific lire, they stood on . . . and fired a torpedo at the second ship of (he enemy line at a range of. 3000 yards. (This is believed to have hit the Lttizow). Before they' could tire their fourth torpedo, Nestor was badly hit and swung to starboard. . She came to a. standstill only two miles west of her sistership Nomad. Not long afterward the opposing battle-cruiser forces were sighted returning ou a north-west course and 15 minutes later came the German High Seas Fleet. As the hitter passed, the battleships smothered first the Nomad and then the Nestor with salvoes, but nor. before the latter had fired her last torpedo, which was “seen to run well.” The survivors of the two helpless destroyers, among them Bingham, and Commander Whitfield of the Nomad, were picked up by the German destroyer 5.15 and lan'ded at Wilhelmshaven. They spent 23 months in Germany as prisoners of war. For his gallantry and devotion to duty Commander Bingham was awarded the V ictoria Cross. Promoted captain after the war, Bingham subsequently commanded the Admiralty yacht Enchantress, the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla, reserve ships at the Nore and Devonport, and the battleship Resolution. He was chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief at the Nore from 1927 till 1929. He retired from the active list on July 5, 1932, on his promotion to Rear-Admiral at the age of 51.