OUTSTANDING SEAMAN

Evening Star, Issue 25676, 27 December 1945, Page 5

OUTSTANDING SEAMAN

LORD KEYES DEAD PASSING IN HIS SLEEP LONDON, December 26. The death from cardiac asthma occurred in liis sleep of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes. Lord Roger John Browulow Keyes was born in October, 1872. his father being General Sir Charles Keves. From the time he wore his first sailor suit he wanted to join the Navy, and lie realised his ambition in 1885. He first saw active service in 1890, and for his work in China during the Boxer rebellion of 1900 he was promoted to commander. He was in action with distinction early in the war of 1914-18 in the Heligoland Bight, and during the war was general officer commanding the Royal Naval Division at Antwerp, the Dardanelles, and in France, where he was severely wounded. In 1917 he was promoted' Rear-Admiral and appointed director - of plans at the Admiralty. In 1918 he was acting Vice-Admiral in command of fhe famous Dover Patrol. For his services in the Zeebrugge and Ostend raids, Admiral Keyes received the K.C.8., and after the war he was made a baronet and given a grant of £IO,OOO. From April, 1919,'

to 1921, as Rear-Admiral, be commanded the battlecruiser squadron of the Atlantic Fleet. He was then promoted, to Vice-Admiral and became deputy chief of the general staff. In 1925 he was appointed Com-mauder-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Station, and in March was made an Admiral. Promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in March, 1930, he retired from active service three months later. In April, 1932, he was made colonel commandant of the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marines—the first appointment of an Admiral to such a post for a century. In 1934, as Sir Roger Keyes, he entered Parliament as National member for Portsmouth North, retaining his seat until his elevation to the peerage in 1943. He is the author of a number of notable naval publications relating to the last war, the more recent being ‘ Fight for Gallipoli,’ published in 1941, and ‘ Amphibious Warfare and Combined Operations,’ in 1943.

With the outbreak of the present war, Lord Keyes was replaced on.the active list in 1940, and was the origi-' nator of Britain’s new guerrilla troops, the commandos, holding the first post of Director of Combined Operations, which he relinquished in 1941. His son, Lieutenant-colonel Geoffrey - Keyes, V.C., M.C., was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for leading a daring commando rai,d on Rommel’s headquarters in Libya in 1941. Lord Keyes visited New Zealand and Australia on an “ unofficial goodwill tour ” early this year. .