Captain Sir Ernest Whiteside Huddleston (18 August 1874 – 10 October 1959) was a British military commander who was Deputy Director and officiating Commander of the Royal Indian Marine.Obituary in The Times, 12 October 1959 He was later Shipping Surveyor and Adviser to the High Commissioner for India and

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to the Viceroy.

Early life

Ernest Whiteside Huddleston was born in 1874 at Murree in the Punjab. Like his brother

Willoughby Baynes Huddleston Commander Willoughby Baynes Huddleston (1866-1953) was a Commander in the Royal Indian Marine and Aide-de-Camp to Lord Pentland, Governor of Madras (1912–19).Obituary in ''The Times'', ''Captain W.B. Huddleston'', 5 May 1953, p.8 He held ...

, at the age of 7 he was sent to Bedford Modern School which he attended between 1881 and 1888, leaving the school at fourteen to join the Merchant Navy.

Career

Having joined the Merchant Navy in 1888, Huddleston received his certificate as Second mate of a Foreign Going Ship on 30 May 1895. He then joined the Royal Indian Marine initially serving in the Egyptian Campaign. He took the Officer's course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and in 1897 was in the troopship,

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-Genera ...

, when she was wrecked at sea off the coast of Mauritius. For his role in the rescue of those on board, Huddleston was awarded the Royal Humane Society's silver medal for gallantry. Huddleston served in the China Expedition against the

Boxer Rising The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

(1901–02). During World War I he served as senior marine transport officer of Bombay. He was promoted to

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in 1918 and was Presidency Port Officer of

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

before being appointed Deputy Director of the Royal Indian Marine in 1924 and officiating Director for some months in 1925. Huddleston then served in the Indian Civil Service as shipping surveyor and adviser to the High Commissioner for India in London. He was at one point aide-de-camp to the Viceroy,

Lord Reading Marquess of Reading is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1926 for Rufus Isaacs, who had been Member of Parliament for Reading between 1904 and 1913, before serving as Viceroy of India and Lord Chief Justice of Eng ...

. Huddleston was placed on the retired list of the Royal Navy in 1934 and was knighted in 1939.

Family life

On 4 August 1904, Huddleston married Elsie Barlow-Smith; they'd met in Bedford as school children. The first child of the marriage was a daughter, Barbara. Trevor, later Bishop of Johannesburg, was born in Bedford on 13 June 1913. His first wife died in 1931 and in 1932 he married Lorna, daughter of W.W. Box of

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

. Huddleston died on 10 October 1959 in Devon.''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar, Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858–1966''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huddleston, Ernest Whiteside 1874 births 1959 deaths People educated at Bedford Modern School Royal Indian Navy officers Knights Bachelor Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Commanders of the Order of the British Empire