Roger Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes
Admiral of the Fleet Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, GCB, KCVO, CMG, DSO (4 October 1872 – 26 December 1945) was a British naval officer.
"Roger Keyes" redirects here. For the English clergyman and academic, see Roger Keys.
The Lord Keyes
Peerage created
Roger George Bowlby Keyes
4 October 1872
Punjab, British India
26 December 1945 (aged 73)
Tingewick, United Kingdom
St James's Cemetery, Dover
Sir Charles Patton Keyes (father)
Geoffrey Keyes (son)
United Kingdom
1885–1935
1940–1941
HMS Opossum (1898–99)
HMS Hart (1899–1900)
HMS Fame (1900–01)
HMS Bat (1901)
HMS Falcon (1902)
HMS Sprightly (1902)
HMS Venus (1908–10)
Commodore-in-Charge, Submarine Service (1912–14)
HMS Centurion (1916–17)
Dover Patrol (1917–18)
Battle Cruiser Force (1919)
Battlecruiser Squadron) (1919–21)
Atlantic Fleet (1919–21)
Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet (1925–28)
Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth (1929–31)
Director of Combined Operations (1940–41)
As a junior officer he served in a corvette operating from Zanzibar on slavery suppression missions. Early in the Boxer Rebellion, he led a mission to capture a flotilla of four Chinese destroyers moored to a wharf on the Peiho River. He was one of the first men to climb over the Peking walls, to break through to the besieged diplomatic legations and to free them.
During the First World War Keyes was heavily involved in the organisation of the Dardanelles Campaign. Keyes took charge in an operation when six trawlers and a cruiser attempted to clear the Kephez minefield. The operation was a failure, as the Turkish mobile artillery pieces bombarded Keyes' minesweeping squadron. He went on to be Director of Plans at the Admiralty and then took command of the Dover Patrol: he altered tactics and the Dover Patrol sank five U-boats in the first month after implementation of Keyes' plan compared with just two in the previous two years. He also planned and led the famous raids on the German submarine pens in the Belgian ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend.
Between the wars Keyes commanded the Battlecruiser Squadron, the Atlantic Fleet and then the Mediterranean Fleet before becoming Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. He was elected to Parliament in 1934. During the Second World War he initially became liaison officer to Leopold III, King of the Belgians. Wearing full uniform in the House of Commons, he played an important role in the Norway Debate which led to the resignation of Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister. He went on to be the first Director of Combined Operations and implemented plans for the training of commandos and raids on hostile coasts.
Early years[edit]
Born the second son of General Sir Charles Patton Keyes of the Indian Army and Katherine Jessie Keyes (née Norman),[1] Keyes told his parents from an early age: "I am going to be an Admiral".[2] After being brought up in India and then the United Kingdom, where he attended preparatory school at Margate, he joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in the training ship HMS Britannia on 15 July 1885.[3] He was appointed to the cruiser HMS Raleigh, flagship of the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station, in August 1887.[3] Promoted to midshipman on 15 November 1887, he transferred to the corvette HMS Turquoise, operating from Zanzibar on slavery suppression missions.[3] Promoted to sub-lieutenant on 14 November 1891[4] and to lieutenant on 28 August 1893,[5] he joined the sloop HMS Beagle on the Pacific Station later that year.[3] After returning home in 1897 he became commanding officer of the destroyer HMS Opossum at Plymouth in January 1898.[3]
Diplomatic and submarines service[edit]
From his return to the United Kingdom and for a couple of years, Keyes served briefly in command of various ships in the instructional flotilla. He was appointed in May 1901 to the command of the destroyer HMS Bat serving in the Devonport instructional flotilla. In January 1902 he was appointed in command of the destroyer HMS Falcon, which took Bat's crew and her place in the flotilla,[10][11] and four months later he again brought his crew and was appointed in command of the destroyer HMS Sprightly, which served in the flotilla from May 1902.[12] Another change of ship came in January 1903, when he transferred to HMS Express, then a brief month with HMS Gipsy in April 1903, until he was posted to HMS Peterel for Naval manouevres during summer 1903.[13]
Keyes was posted to the intelligence section at the Admiralty in 1904 and then became naval attaché at the British Embassy in Rome in January 1905.[3] Promoted to captain on 30 June 1905,[14] he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order on 24 April 1906.[15] He took up command of the cruiser HMS Venus in the Atlantic Fleet in 1908 before going on to be Inspecting Captain of Submarines in 1910 and, having been appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath on 19 June 1911,[16] he became commodore of the Submarine Service in 1912.[3] As head of the Submarine Service, he introduced an element of competition into the construction of submarines, which had previously been built by Vickers. He tended to go to sea in a destroyer because of the primitive visibility from early submarines.[1] He became a naval aide-de-camp to the King on 15 September 1914.[17]
Family[edit]
In 1906 Keyes married Eva Mary Bowlby: they had three daughters and two sons including Geoffrey Keyes, who was killed in action in 1941 and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.[46]