Doveton Sturdee
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Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick Charles Doveton Sturdee, 1st Baronet, GCB, KCMG, CVO (9 June 1859 - 7 May 1925) was a British admiral.
Coming from a family of British mariners, and educated at the Royal Naval School at New Cross, Sturdee entered the Royal Navy in July 1871 as a cadet on the training ship Britannia, at the age of twelve years. After two years he became a midshipman and served in the Channel Squadron and the East India Station. In June 1878 he was promoted to sub-lieutenant and after two years at the naval gunnery school in Portsmouth he became a lieutenant and left for the Mediterranean Fleet. He took part in the bombardment of Alexandria in 1882.
After completing a course on torpedoes, at what is now HMS Vernon he served as a torpedo officer on HMS Bellerophon for three years before returning as an instructor. In June 1893 he was promoted to commander and transferred to the Admiralty as a torpedo specialist. At the end of 1897 he was sent to the Australian Station to command HMS Porpoise, where in 1899 it fell to him to manage the tensions with Germany and the USA over the Samoan Islands, earning him his promotion to captain. He returned to the Admiralty as assistant to the director of naval intelligence and in 1902 was appointed Chief Staff Officer of the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1906 he took command of HMS New Zealand, which he left in 1910 on his promotion to rear-admiral, at the head of the First Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet. The following year he chaired the Submarine Committee of the Admiralty, and in 1912 took command of the cruisers of the Home Fleet. Promoted to vice-admiral in 1913 he became Chief of War Staff at the Admiralty shortly before the First World War. The recall of Admiral John Fisher, to whom he had always been opposed, as First Sea Lord seemed about to blight his career.
Nevertheless, after the defeat at Coronel Fisher sent him to the South Atlantic at the head of a powerful squadron. On 8 November 1914, whilst coaling at Port Stanley, he was surprised by the squadron of Graf Maximilian von Spee and the Battle of the Falkland Islands ensued. Von Spee, finding that he was engaged with a superior force, was forced to flee. In the course of the pursuit Sturdee's forces sank the entire German group, with the exception of the light cruiser Dresden, which was not hunted down until some months later. For this victory Sturdee was created baronet in January 1916. He later commanded the Fourth Battle Squadron at the Battle of Jutland, becoming admiral in 1917 and Admiral of the Fleet in 1921. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in the 1921 New Year Honours,[1] having already been appointed Knight Commander.
He retired to Camberley, in Surrey, and died there on 7 May 1925. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's Church in nearby Frimley. His gravestone incorporates a cross made from the timbers of Nelson's ship, HMS Victory.
