Lord Walter Kerr

Lord Walter Kerr

Admiral of the Fleet Lord Kerr
Born 28 September 1839
Midlothian, Scotland
Died 12 May 1927
Derby, England
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service 1853 - 1909
Rank Admiral of the Fleet
Commands held First Naval Lord
Battles/wars Crimean War,
Indian Mutiny
Awards GCB, PC

Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Walter Talbot Kerr, GCB, PC (28 September 1839 – 12 May 1927) was the British First Naval Lord from 1899 to 1904.

Contents

Early Life and Indian Mutiny

He was born at Newbattle Abbey, Midlothian, on 28 September 1839, the fourth son of the 7th Marquess of Lothian (1794–1841),[1] and his wife, the former Lady Cecil Talbot (1808–1877).

Kerr was educated at Radley College from 1851 to 1853,[1] when he joined the Prince Regent as a naval cadet.[2] During the Baltic operations of the Crimean War (1854–5) he served in the Neptune and Cornwallis and was promoted Midshipman in August 1855.[1] The next year he was appointed to the frigate Shannon on the China station.[1]

On the outbreak of the Indian mutiny in 1857 the Shannon was ordered to Calcutta, and he landed with most of his ship's company as a naval brigade.[1] Kerr was wounded in an action near Cawnpore,[1] and was given an independent command at the siege and capture of Lucknow. For this service he was specially rated mate for the rest of the Shannon's commission,[1] and in the following year served for a few months in the same rank in the royal yacht Victoria and Albert,[1] and was promoted Lieutenant in September 1859.[1]

1860 to 1894

In 1860 he was appointed to the Emerald for three years' service in the channel,[1] and in 1864 he went to the Princess Royal, flagship on the East Indies and Cape station, for another three years.[1] He was promoted commander in 1868[1] and served in the Hercules, channel squadron, until 1871,[1] and afterwards in the Lord Warden, until promotion to captain in November 1872.[1] While in the Hercules he was awarded the Royal Humane Society's silver medal for jumping overboard from a height of 30 feet into the Tagus to rescue a man who had fallen from the rigging.[1]

During his first eleven years on the captains' list, four of them on half pay, Kerr's principal commands were as flag-captain to Sir Beauchamp Seymour (afterwards Lord Alcester) in the channel squadron (1874–7),[1] and in the Mediterranean (1880–81).[1] In September 1880 he was sent by Seymour (who commanded the combined fleet of the five naval powers assembled to enforce, under the terms of the treaty of Berlin, the surrender of Ulcinj to Montenegro by Turkey) on a special mission to Rıza Pasha, the Turkish governor of Albania.[3] He then had a shore appointment as captain of the Medway steam reserve[3] until 1885, when Lord George Hamilton, on becoming first lord of the Admiralty in Lord Salisbury's Conservative government, appointed him his naval private secretary.[3]

Kerr retained this appointment at the Admiralty until nearly a year after his promotion to Rear Admiral in January 1889.[3] He then hoisted his flag in the Trafalgar, as second in command in the Mediterranean[3] until 1892, when he returned to the Admiralty as Junior Naval lord.[3] In November 1893 Kerr became Second Naval Lord.[3]

1894 to 1927

He was promoted Vice Admiral in February 1895[3] and in May 1895 Kerr was appointed commander of the Channel Squadron, with his flag in the Majestic, for two years.[3] In June 1895 he took part with his squadron in the celebration of the opening of the Kiel Canal. He was appointed Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria and a member of the Privy Council. In 1899 he was briefly Second Naval Lord again[3] before being made First Naval Lord, the professional head of the Royal Navy.[3] He was promoted Admiral in March 1900[3] and by a special order in council he was then promoted Admiral of the Fleet in June 1904, until Trafalgar day (21 October) of that year, when Selborne brought Fisher back from Portsmouth to succeed him as First Naval Lord. He remained on half pay until he retired on account of age in September 1909.[3]

He was president of the Catholic Union of Great Britain from 1917 to 1921. After his retirement Kerr resided at Melbourne Hall, Derby, and died there on 12 May 1927. A funeral service was held on 17 May at St David's, Dalkeith.

Family

In 1873 he married Lady Amabel Cowper, the youngest daughter of George Augustus Frederick Cowper, 6th Earl Cowper.[1] They had four sons and two daughters.[1] Kerr's grandson was Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian. Melbourne House has been retained by the family and currently belongs to the Lord Ralph Kerr, younger brother of the 13th Marquess, and heir presumptive to the Marquessate.

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Heathcote, p. 143
  2. ^ Battleships: Brief biography
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Heathcote, p. 144
Military offices
Preceded by
Sir Frederick Bedford		 Junior Naval Lord
1892–1893		 Succeeded by
Sir Gerard Noel
Preceded by
Sir Frederick Richards		 Second Naval Lord
1893–1895		 Succeeded by
Sir Frederick Bedford
Preceded by
Sir Robert FitzRoy		 Commander-in-Chief, Channel Fleet
1895–1897		 Succeeded by
Sir Henry Stephenson
Preceded by
Sir Frederick Bedford		 Second Naval Lord
1899		 Succeeded by
Sir Archibald Douglas
Preceded by
Sir Frederick Richards		 First Naval Lord
1899–1904		 Succeeded by
The Lord Fisher