Augustus Agar

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Augustus Agar bigraphy, stories - Recipient of the Victoria Cross

Augustus Agar : biography

4 January 1890 – 30 December 1968

Commodore Augustus Willington Shelton Agar, VC, DSO, RN (4 January 1890 – 30 December 1968) was a noted Royal Navy officer in both World War I and World War II and a 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.

In his naval biography, Footprints in the Sea, published in 1961, Agar described himself as "…highly strung and imaginative…". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that Agar "… epitomizes the ‘sea dog’ of British naval tradition: honourable, extremely brave and totally dedicated to King, country and the Royal Navy."

Later life

After leave for a month, the less than fit Agar was sent to Belfast to supervise the building and completion of the new aircraft carrier, HMS Unicorn. He worked on this assignment for a period and was placed on the retired list in 1943.

Agar was appointed Commodore in 1943 when he once again served as President and Captain of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. He served in this capacity until 1946 and reverted to his substantive rank of Captain.

Agar wrote two noteworthy books about his naval career. In his retirement he farmed at Alton, Hampshire, England. His farm produced strawberries. His clubs were the Athenaeum and the Royal Yacht Squadron.

Augustus Agar died on 30 December 1968 and was buried at Alton. His will was probated at 9,580 pounds sterling on 28 March 1969.

His second wife, Ina, attended HMS Dorsetshire reunions after his death.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Imperial War Museum, London, along with his telescope. His other medals and various papers are in storage there, including a receipt for gold bullion delivered to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1939.

HM Coastal Motor Boat 4, his boat in the Baltic, is on permanent display at Imperial War Museum Duxford.

Character and Manner

Augustus Agar was described by Alfred Draper in his book, "Operation Fish", as a "…slim, impeccably-uniformed man with an extremely courteous manner…". He had a reputation for expecting a lot from his men, but looking out for their best interest as well. Arriving in Plymouth on Sunday, 29 October 1939 after a gruelling two months of continuous sea duty in the North Atlantic, he was informed that he had to get his damaged ship ready for sea in six days. He sent his men home for a much needed rest and stayed himself to personally supervise dockyard repairs. He devised a means (drawing on his Murmansk experience in 1917-18) of getting steam heat into the mess decks, so that the men coming from and going onto duty in the cold could get a "warm up".

Early life

Augustus Agar was born in Kandy, Ceylon, on 4 January 1890. He was the thirteenth child of John Shelton Agar, an Irishman from County Kerry, who had left his native land in 1860 to become a successful tea planter in Ceylon, taking a pack of foxhounds with him. Agar was brought up in comfortable circumstances in a fine house with servants. Agar’s mother, who was Austrian, died shortly after his birth and at the age of eight he was sent with one of his brothers to school in England. All his brothers were educated in English public schools, and all his sisters were educated in Austrian or German schools. His father died in 1902 of cholera which he had caught during a visit to China.

Augustus ("Gus") Agar attended Framlingham College in Suffolk, England. He was now without parents or a fixed home and his oldest brother, Shelton, determined that he should go into the Navy. Gus, who idolized his older brother, willingly agreed. To prepare, he attended Eastman’s Royal Naval Academy in Southsea.

A friend of the family, Sir Henry Jackson, later an admiral and First Sea Lord, nominated Agar for a spot in the annual intake of naval cadets. After time spent with a "crammer", he passed the entrance exams and in 1904 joined the naval cadet school, HMS Britannia, at Dartmouth, England. The Britannia was a wooden man of war, obsolete when launched in 1860, and soon tied up and used as a stationary training ship.