Admiral Sir Herbert ("Bertie") Annesley Packer KCB,

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 ...

(9 October 1894 – 23 September 1962) was an officer in the British

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 ...

and ended his career as an Admiral and

Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic The Commander-in-Chief South Atlantic was an operational commander of the Royal Navy from 1939. The South American area was added to his responsibilities in 1960, and the post disestablished in 1967. Immediately before the outbreak of the Sec ...

Family background

The only son of Dr. William Packer and musician Edith Mary Rutter, he entered the

Royal Naval College, Osborne The Royal Naval College, Osborne, was a training college for Royal Navy officer cadets on the Osborne House estate, Isle of Wight, established in 1903 and closed in 1921. Boys were admitted at about the age of thirteen to follow a course lasting ...

, as an

officer cadet Officer Cadet is a rank held by military cadets during their training to become commissioned officers. In the United Kingdom, the rank is also used by members of University Royal Naval Units, University Officer Training Corps and University Ai ...

on 15 September 1907.

Early career

Packer joined the

in 1907.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He left

Dartmouth Naval College Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), commonly known as Dartmouth, is the naval academy of the United Kingdom and the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy. It is located on a hill overlooking the port of Dartmouth, Devon, En ...

with the King's dirk and gold medal for outstanding qualities of leadership and joined HMS ''St. Vincent'' as a midshipman. In 1913 he invented an uncle in Australia and was chosen from a score of volunteers to sail the new battlecruiser HMAS ''Australia'' to Sydney. During 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 ...

Packer stayed on HMAS ''Australia'' and his first action was off the Falkland Isles as part of a boarding party that captured the German S.S. ''Elaenor Woermann'' from

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

. His ability to speak fluent German (and French) allowed him to interrogate the crew. The captured ship was scuttled. As an Acting Sub-Lieutenant, Bertie Packer joined the new battleship on 22 February 1915. He was trained as an Assistant

Gunnery Officer The gunnery officer of a warship was the officer responsible for operation and maintenance of the ship's guns and for safe storage of the ship's ammunition inventory. Background The gunnery officer was usually the line officer next in rank to the ...

. After the Battle of Jutland in 1916, Packer was mentioned in dispatches for firing 12 rounds (though all fell short of their target) at the line of German

High Seas Fleet The High Seas Fleet (''Hochseeflotte'') was the battle fleet of the German Imperial Navy and saw action during the First World War. The formation was created in February 1907, when the Home Fleet (''Heimatflotte'') was renamed as the High Seas ...

battleships under local control. ''Warspite'' was heavily damaged and direction and gunnery control was disabled. Bertie Packer was also made a Lieutenant. In the years between the wars, Packer served in , HMS ''Excellent'', married South African author and journalist Joy Petersen in 1924, served in ''Warspite'', and in the Mediterranean Sea, qualified as a Naval Interpreter in French, took a course at the RN Staff College, and then joined the crew of the cruiser as Fleet Gunnery Officer of the

China Station The Commander-in-Chief, China was the admiral in command of what was usually known as the China Station, at once both a British Royal Navy naval formation and its admiral in command. It was created in 1865 and deactivated in 1941. From 1831 to 18 ...

in Wei Hai Wei. In 1936 Captain Packer was appointed "Naval

Attaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accord ...

to the

Embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually den ...

in Angora, and to His Majesty's Legations at Belgrade and

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with headquarters at Athens".

Second World War

On 24 August 1939 Packer was appointed to command the cruiser . In February 1940 the ''Calcutta'' and the destroyer chased the German supply-ship ''Altmark''. Captain

Philip Vian Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Louis Vian, & Two Bars (15 July 1894 – 27 May 1968) was a Royal Navy officer who served in both World Wars. Vian specialised in naval gunnery from the end of World War I, and subsequently received sever ...

of the ''Cossack'' led a boarding party, in neutral Norwegian waters and freed the 300 captive British sailors on board. As captain of Captain Packer was involved in the

Battle of Cape Spartivento The Battle of Cape Spartivento, known as the Battle of Cape Teulada in Italy, was a naval battle during the Battle of the Mediterranean in the Second World War, fought between naval forces of the Royal Navy and the Italian ''Regia Marina'' on 27 ...

. On 27 November 1940 the 18th Cruiser Squadron attacked and dispersed a superior Italian fleet off the Sardinian coast. Captain Packer, an aggressive commander, suggested in his report that the Admiralty ''"''stow more ammunition for the forward turrets, possibly at the expense of the after turrets" as it was "an experience common to many, if not all, of H.M. ships in action, both in this war and the last, and I am willing to prophesy that it is a situation that is likely to continue, that the foremost turrets fired many more rounds than the after turrets". Between 1941 and 1943 Captain Packer was Commanding Officer of HMS ''Excellent'', a shore installation, the Gunnery School on Whale Island, near

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. In the spring of 1943 Captain Packer was put in command of his first battleship – the veteran ''Warspite''. The battleship was the H.Q. of Rear Admiral A.W. la Touche Bisset and part of Force H. The guns bombarded Catania and supported the Allied landings on

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

and the Italian mainland. ''Warspite'' was shelling Salerno on 15 September 1943 when a new German weapon was deployed.

Fritz X Fritz X was the most common name for a German guided anti-ship glide bomb used during World War II. ''Fritz X'' was the world's first precision guided weapon deployed in combat and the first to sink a ship in combat. ''Fritz X'' was a nickname us ...

wireless guided bombs, controlled by an aircraft at , crashed through the decks and one of them exploded in the boiler room. Captain Packer managed to bring the crippled ship, under tow, back to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

and was once again mentioned in despatches. He has the rare honour of having been so honoured for his conduct on the same ship in two world wars. Rear Admiral Packer spent the rest of the war as a staff officer (Commodore administration) and then Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet. For planning the amphibious operations in Sicily and landings in Southern France Packer was made 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 o ...

in January 1945. Later in that year he was 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 ...

for his conduct in Italy. The American government made him an Officer in their Legion of Merit, and the French awarded him the '' Croix de Guerre avec Palme'' and made him a ''Commandeur'' in the

Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

Post-war activities

Packer hoisted his flag in and commanded the 2nd Cruiser Squadron. In 1948 he became Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Supplies and Transport. For his services to the United Kingdom he was made a

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as o ...

Retirement

Sir Herbert Packer's last command was that of Commander in Chief

South Atlantic Station The Commander-in-Chief South Atlantic was an operational commander of the Royal Navy from 1939. The South American area was added to his responsibilities in 1960, and the post disestablished in 1967. Immediately before the outbreak of the Sec ...

. He was a full admiral now and retired in 1953. Packer retired in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

and died in September 1962, aged 67. He left a wife and a son, the surgeon Peter Packer who emigrated to Australia. The ashes of Herbert Packer were scattered from the side of the frigate HMSAS ''Good Hope'' near

Cape Point Cape Point ( af, Kaappunt) is a promontory at the southeast corner of the Cape Peninsula, a mountainous and scenic landform that runs north-south for about thirty kilometres at the extreme southwestern tip of the African continent in South Af ...

where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet.

Other activities

Packer played a single

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

match in 1920, appearing for a Royal Navy cricket team against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

; he batted as a tail-ender in the match, scoring 0 and 3, and took two catches as wicketkeeper.

Literature

References

External links

The Papers of Admiral Sir Herbert Packer
– provides information regarding Packer's career

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Packer, Herbert Annesley 1894 births 1962 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Lords of the Admiralty Royal Navy admirals of World War II English cricketers Royal Navy cricketers Military personnel from Shropshire Royal Navy officers of World War I Officers of the Legion of Merit British naval attachés