Jump to content

Guy D'Oyly-Hughes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Johnpacklambert (talk | contribs) at 18:07, 30 September 2022 (added Category:British expatriates in the United States using HotCat). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Guy D'Oyly-Hughes
Lieutenant Guy D'Oyly Hughes starting off with his raft on 21 August 1915
Born(1891-08-08)8 August 1891
Salt Lake City, Utah, US
Died8 June 1940(1940-06-08) (aged 48) [1]
HMS Glorious, Norwegian Sea
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch Royal Navy
Years of service1904–1940
RankCaptain
Commands
Battles / warsFirst World War

Second World War

Awards
Spouse(s)Anne Margaret Gladys D'Oyly-Hughes, of New York City, U.S.A.[1]
RelationsSon of Samuel and Keziah Hughes [1]

Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes DSO & Bar, DSC (8 August 1891 – 8 June 1940) was an officer in the Royal Navy.

Service career

Early life

Guy D'Oyly-Hughes was born in 1891 in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, the son of Samuel Hughes, a British physician, and Kezia D'Oyly Hughes. At the age of nine, he was sent to Britain to complete his education, followed by his parents in 1901. They eventually settled in Southampton. D'Oyly-Hughes married Anne Margaret Gladys Crawford, with whom he had two daughters.

First World War

During the First World War, Lieutenant D'Oyly-Hughes was a submariner and second in command of HMS E11, which was highly successful in the Dardanelles Campaign.[2] He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in June 1915 after a patrol in which his captain, Lieutenant Commander Martin Nasmith, was awarded the Victoria Cross. D'Oyly-Hughes was awarded the Distinguished Service Order after swimming ashore from E11 with explosives and blowing up part of the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway on 21 August 1915.[3][4]

Second World War and death

In June 1939, as a captain, he was given command of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious. D'Oyly-Hughes had learned to fly and continually rejected the advice of the ship's professional aviators, according to Winton.[3] Returning to Britain from the Norwegian campaign on 8 June 1940, Glorious and her destroyer escort of HMS Acasta and HMS Ardent were surprised and caught by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Norwegian Sea. All three British ships were sunk with the loss of at least 1,533 lives. D'Oyly-Hughes went down with his ship.

Glorious had been sighted in conditions of maximum visibility, a condition in which an aircraft carrier would normally have one or more aircraft out on a Combat Air Patrol. Glorious had no such patrol, and was unable to reach maximum speed before coming in range of the enemy's 11-inch guns. Winton describes D'Oyly-Hughes' lack of belief in the effectiveness of air patrols and the questions raised by numerous commentators, including eyewitnesses from Glorious and Scharnhorst,[5] about the captain's judgement in this and other matters.

See also

Hansard report on the debate "HMS Glorious" in the House of Commons on 28 January 1999.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c GWGC 2021.
  2. ^ Shankland, Peter; Hunter, Anthony (1971). Dardanelles Patrol. London: Mayflower Books. p. 17.
  3. ^ a b John Winton (1986), Carrier Glorious, Leo Cooper/Secker & Warburg, London [page needed]
  4. ^ Parrott 1916, p. 95.
  5. ^ The Tragedy of HMS Glorious, Channel-4 Television, London 1997
  6. ^ HMS Glorious. House of Commons Debate 28 January 1999 vol 324 cc564-76. Retrieved 10 September 2020

Bibliography