Commodore Henry Douglas King, CB,

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, DSO, VD, PC (1 June 1877 – 20 August 1930) was a British naval commander and Conservative politician. He served under

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

as Financial Secretary to the War Office between 1924 and 1928 and as Secretary for Mines between 1928 and 1929.

Early life

King was born in London, the son of Captain Henry Welchman King. He trained as a Merchant Navy officer in HMS ''Conway'' from 1891 to 1893. After Conway he served initially in the mercantile navy, then served in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

before joining P & O. He left the sea in 1899 and took up farming for a short while. However, he soon turned to studying law and was

called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

, in 1905. He stood as the Conservative candidate for

Norfolk North Norfolk North was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1904. It was located in the province of Ontario. It was created by the British North America Act of 1867, which divided the county of Norfo ...

in the two general elections of 1910, but was defeated on both occasions. At the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914 he obtained a commission in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and served at the Siege of Antwerp and

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

.''Evening Post'', 6 July 1929
/ref> He was awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

in recognition of his services at Gallipoli in 1915. He was also given the French

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

and was appointed a Commander of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

in 1919.

Political career

At the 1918 general election King once again stood for

and was this time elected. King was named a Unionist candidate in the official list of

Coalition Government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

endorsements, but he wrote to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' stating he had left the party before the election and should be classed as an independent. He later rejoined the party. In parliament he initially served as

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to Sir Leslie Wilson, Chairman of the National Maritime Board, and then to Sir Hamar Greenwood, the

Chief Secretary for Ireland The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, and officially the "Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant", from the early 19th century un ...

. In 1921 he was appointed a Conservative

whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...

. The following year he was returned to parliament for Paddington South and entered the government under

Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law ( ; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923. Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a ...

as a Lord of the Treasury (government whip), a position he held until January 1924, the last year under the premiership of

. When the Conservatives returned to office in November 1924, King was made Financial Secretary to the War Office and a member of the Army Council. He held this post until 1928, and was then Secretary for Mines until the Baldwin administration fell in 1929. The latter year he was also sworn of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

following the

1929 Dissolution Honours The 1929 Dissolution Honours List was issued on 28 June 1929 at the advice of the outgoing Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin. Earldom * Rt Hon William Peel, 2nd Viscount Peel, GBE Viscountcy * Rt Hon Sir William Joynson-Hicks, Bt, MP Baronies ...

. He had previously been made a Companion of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

in 1927.

Personal life

King married the only daughter of W. R. Swan, of

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. On 20 August 1930 King's cutter yacht ''Islander'' sank in a gale off

Fowey Fowey ( ; kw, Fowydh, meaning 'Beech Trees') is a port town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Fowey in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town has been in existence since well before the Norman invasion, with the local ch ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

. All six aboard, including King himself, were lost. His memorial is at All Saints Church, Upper Sheringham, Norfolk. The memorial states that the yacht Islander was 'smashed to pieces' on the rocky coast of Lantivet Bay, Cornwall during a 'fierce summer storm'. It goes on: "At sunset in the calm stillness of a beautiful summer evening, his ashes were, by his own wish, taken out to sea by the Sheringham lifeboat and within sight of his old home scattered over the face of the waters".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Douglas 1877 births 1930 deaths Royal Navy officers of World War I Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Deaths due to shipwreck at sea Accidental deaths in England Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War I