LORD WESTER WEMYSS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 July 1935, Page 4

LORD WESTER WEMYSS

A WAR DISCLOSURE. Hector Bywater writes in the London “Daily Telegraph”: — As professional head of the Royal Navy during the final year of the Great War, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Wester Wemyss ranks among those who led the nation to victory.

Even to colleagues closely associated with him afloat and ashore, “Rosy” Wemyss appeared as a typical naval officer of the “breezy” type—smiling in times good and bad, debonair. impervious to worry, gazing at the woild with amused tolerance through his twinkling mqnocle. Yet this somewhat deceptive mask ccncealecf a most acute and penetrating mind. Care lurked behind the ready smile; the geniality which made him one of the Navy’s best “mixers” was not always as effortless as it seemed. To those who served with him- his ins'ouciance in the darkest hours was almost bewildering.

Lady Wester Wemyss has attempted no orthodox biography of her distinguished husband in “The Life and Letters of Lord Wester Wemyss,” which Eyre and Spottiswoode publish. In the main it is composed of his own letters and memoranda linked together by brief comments from the compiler. On the whole, his naval career was not particularly eventful until a period shortly before the war. In 1908, returning to England after a foreign command, Wemyss came into violent collision with “Packy”- Fisher by his blunt refusal of an appointment offered on terms which he rightly considered humiliating. “In \an interview with Sir John Fisher,” states the-widow, “the latter, well aware how much Wemyss desired the post of Naval Secretary, offered it to him, adding that such an appointment would be a gross job since there were many men senior to him who ought to be preferred; while plainly intimating that the price he would have to pay would be absolute subservience to his views.

He had no illusions as to the probable effect of this incident .on his career, for Fisher never forgot nor forgave. This may explain why, on the outbreak of war, when Wemyss was a rear-admiral, he could get nothing better than the command of an obsolete cruiser squadron. Three months later he is writing: “I’m beginning to loathe the Navy and wish I had never entered it. It is Fisher that has wrought the change. He it was that made it impossible for gentlemen and honest people to serve at the Admiralty.” The close of Lord Wester Wemyss’ career was unfortunately clouded, and his widow* pictures him as a disappointed man.

Wemyss was present with Marshal Foch when the German delegates came to sue for peace, and as representative of Great Britain he signed the Armistice. For five years he had worked without a real rest or holiday. After the Armistice his health began to break. “He left for Wemyss. Arrived at Kirkcaldy he’saw a paper with the War Honours List and opened it. Sir Douglas Haig and Sir David Beatty were created earls. Sir John Jellicoe was made a Viscount. The chiefs of the Arm-' and Air Service, the admirals, down to the secretary of the War Cabinet, all received the thanks of the nation, their due meed of honours and grants—all with one exception only. Alone, amongst the war leaders. Wemyss was neither thanked, nor honoured, nor rewarded.” This was after he had been told by Mr Walter Long, First Lord of the Admiralty, that he was to be made a viscount and receive a money grant in recognition of his services. Wtihin an hour he sent in his resignation, stating in his letter to the First Lord: “What measure of success 1 achieved I leave to the nation to judge; that I have not succeeded in pleasing the Government is evident.”

A DEVOTED SERVANT. He was perusaded to withdraw the resignation for the time, and remained at the Admiralty until the end of 1919. To the King Lord Wemyss wrote: “The day on which I took over the duties of First Sea Lord marked the turning point of the Naval war. The steady diminuation of the submarine menace from that time —the offensive spirit which I introduced, the most maiked manifestations of which were the attacks of Zeebrugge and Ostend, the offensive mining campaign, led directly to the collapse of the enemy naval campaign, and 1 can therefore lay down my task with the feeling that I have carried out my duties to the satisfaction of the nation.” A peerage and special promotion to Admiral of the Fleet rewarded his great services, but he was already a tired man, whose health had been undermined by the cares of office. His death two years ago robbed the country of a. singularly able, unselfish and devoted servant.

Wemyss’ big chance had come with the decision to form the Dardanelles. His letters teem with pungent criticisms of the mismanagement of the Galilpcli campaign and of Admiralty and War Office methods.

“Never in the history of the world,’’ he wrote, “has a big campaign been so hastily organised, and never has such an undertaking got so little consideration from home.” The immortal landing on the beaches and the subsequent operations ashore and afloat are vividly pictured. On May 25, 1915, he writes: “We have just heard for certain that Fisher and Churchill have actually’ gone. We must now pray that some sympathy and common-sense may bo brought, to bear on matters out here.” He speaks of the Admiralty as “a house divided against itself, lor whilst Churchill was the originator of the Dardanelles expedition, Fisher has done everything be could to baulk it.”

Just before the big naval attack on the Narrows, the illness of Admiral Carden made Wemyss senior naval officer. With splendid devotion he waived his right to command the fleet, and consented to servi undci bis junior, de Robeck. This gesture was characteristic of one to whom service to country transcended every personal consideration. Though Inwas highly popular with the Army, his private opinion of its leaders was not flattering. .

"I am really proud of our Service " h'-n I compare it with the Army ’i he tvgimental officer and the private are magnificent, but the Generals and the staff! Their ignorance ami their self-satisfaction is .something awful." JELLICOE’S DEPUTY. M'-myss played a leading part tu that mastcj piece of* organisation tinevacuation of Gallipoli. Late r ’ in

Arabia he met Colonel T. E. Lawrence. wrote of him: —

“Admiral Wemyss was in glorious contrast to the soldiers —no jealousy, no stupidity, no laziness; he was as keen to help as any two-year-old. His support in the mixed councils and conferences was hearteningly useful.” Meanwhile the naval situation at home had become so serious that Sir Eric Geddes, the new First Lord, decided on drastic measures. Knowing Wemyss’.s gift, for- organisation, coupled with a disarming tact, he invited him to become Deputy First Sea Lord under Admiral Jellicoe. That this arrangement did not work well is hardly surprising. “Jellicoe,” wrote Wemyss, “simply refuses to delegate to me any responsibility.” Yet, as the compiler truly observes, “It was England’s darkest hour; the submarine campaign was undefeated, the defensive measures had so far apparently failed .... So long as there was, as then, an excess of British shipping losses over deliveries, and an excess of German submarine deliveries over losses cur defeat could only be a question of time.”

Geddes told Wemyss.that “he had made up his mind to get rid of Jellicoe, and asked me if I were prepared to take his place.” With some reluctance he agreed, but his position was “painful in the extreme.” His colleagues protested violently against the treatment of Jellicoe, who they said had been “kicked out without warning.”

Wemyss’ sole criticism of his predecessor is that Jellicoe could not bring himself to concentrate on policy and leave details to others. MR LLOYD GEORGE’S DENIAL. Air Lloyd George made the following statement at Churt: “No one who takes the trouble to look into the facts of the fateful November 11, 1918, would reprint this preposterous story. The Armistice was signed at five o’clock in the morning, and everyone throughout the world knew of it as soon as they woke. “The suggestion is that I meant to keep the news from the public for ten hours in order to have the satisfaction of announcing it myself in the House of Commons at three o’clock in the afternoon. It is so silly a tale that I am amazed that any responsible pt rson should think it worth while printing.” .Mr Lloyd George stated at the Lord Mayor's banquet on November 9,191 S: “The issue is settled,” but the public first received news of the actual signing of the Armistice at 11 a.m. on November 11, when official notices were posted outside public buildings and maroons were fired.