Horace Hood

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Horace Hood bigraphy, stories - British First World War admiral killed in action

Horace Hood : biography

2 October 1870 – 31 May 1916

Rear Admiral Sir Horace Lambert Alexander Hood KCB, DSO, MVO (2 October 1870 – 31 May 1916) was a British Royal Navy admiral of the First World War, whose lengthy and distinguished service saw him engaged in operations around the world, frequently participating in land campaigns as part of a shore brigade. His early death at the Battle of Jutland in the destruction of his flagship was met with mourning and accolades from across Britain.

Admiral Hood was a youthful, vigorous and active officer whose service in Africa won him the Distinguished Service Order and who was posthumously raised to a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in recognition of his courageous and ultimately fatal service in the Battle of Jutland, during which his ship was constantly engaged from its arrival at the action and caused fatal damage to a German light cruiser. He has been described as "the beau ideal of a naval officer, spirited in manner, lively of mind, enterprising, courageous, handsome, and youthful in appearance … His lineage was pure Royal Navy, at its most gallant"., Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, H. W. Richmond, Retrieved 18 November 2007

Early career

Horace Hood was descended of one of the most influential and experienced navy lines, being a great-great-grandson of Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, who won numerous actions against the French in the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary Wars. His father was Francis Wheler Hood, 4th Viscount Hood and his mother Edith Lydia Drummond Ward., Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Retrieved 18 November 2007 Born in South Street, London, Hood joined the navy aged just 12, attending cadet training ship at Dartmouth in 1882. Graduating top of his class in September 1885, Hood joined as a midshipman and served on her for a year in the Mediterranean Squadron before joining . In 1887 he was attached to , a small cruiser which sailed for the Pacific Ocean. It was aboard her that Hood experienced the Samoan Hurricane in which Calliope was the only survivor of seven foreign warships in Apia Harbour.

African service

Hood gained a record score in his exam for lieutenant, and qualified first time. He served in for a time before taking three years out to study gunnery and staff duties. On his return to the sea, he spent brief periods aboard , , and . He performed well at these duties and in 1897 was recommended to the Egyptian government who provided him with a Nile gunboat to command on the Nile Expedition of 1898 in the Mahdist War. During these operations, Hood was conspicuous in his duty as second in command to Captain David Beatty and saw action for the first time, providing artillery support at the Battle of Atbara and Battle of Omdurman. For his services in these operations, he was promoted to commander, skipping the intermediate rank.

During the Second Boer War, Hood was given command of transport ships taking supplies to South Africa before being transferred to Admiral Lord Charles Beresford’s flagship in the Mediterranean. In July 1903, Hood was given promotion to full captain and placed in command of , flagship of Admiral G. L. Atkinson-Willes on the East Indies Station. In April 1904, Hood was given his first independent command as he led a force of 754 sailors, marines and soldiers of the Hampshire Regiment against the Ilig Dervishes of Somaliland. Landing his men on an opposed beach in the dark, Hood led from the front, personally engaging in hand-to-hand combat and driving the dervishes into the hinterland, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

Distinguished by his action, Hood was given command of the armoured cruiser in 1906 and the following year was made naval attaché to the British Embassy in Washington D.C. It was there he met Ellen Touzalin Nickerson, a widowed mother, whom he later married in 1910. The couple had two sons, Samuel Hood, 6th Viscount Hood (1910–1981) and Alexander Lambert Hood, 7th Viscount Hood (1914–1999). In 1908, Hood was given command of the pre-dreadnought battleship , in which he served for a year before receiving a shore appointment to command the Royal Naval College, Osborne, where he stayed until 1913 when he was raised to flag rank. For three months Hood raised his flag in the dreadnought battleship before becoming Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill in July 1914.