Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...
William Gordon Perrin,
OBE (1874–1931) was an RAF and Navy officer, and the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
librarian from 1908 to 1931. He is most well known for his works on flags; particularly ''British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea'' which has been described as the standard by which all other flag books are compared
and ''Nelson's Signals'' in which he established that the flags which had been accepted as denoting Nelson's historic signal at
Trafalgar Trafalgar most often refers to:
* Battle of Trafalgar (1805), fought near Cape Trafalgar, Spain
* Trafalgar Square, a public space and tourist attraction in London, England
It may also refer to:
Music
* ''Trafalgar'' (album), by the Bee Gees
Pl ...
were incorrect.
Early life
Perrin was born on 10 February 1874. At a very early age he lost his father, and his education was thereby curtailed, but what he lacked in scholastic knowledge was more than compensated for in the school of experience and hard work. He entered the Civil Service by examination, and after a brief period in more than one department was posted to the Admiralty on 2 August 1893. He served first in the Record Office, where he acquired an aptitude for original research; and later in the Legal Branch, where he developed an interest in flag questions, upon which he became a recognised authority, and wrote a standard work.
Military service
In December, 1900, he became private secretary to Sir Evan MacGregor, Secretary to the Admiralty, and subsequently to his successor, Sir Inigo Thomas. His services were utilised to a great extent by Lord Fisher in connection with the carrying out of his reforms in naval administration. There is a glowing tribute to Perrin's incomparable efficiency in one of
Lord Fisher's books.
He was appointed Librarian at the Admiralty on 10 April 1908. The completion of the
Admiralty Arch
Admiralty Arch is a landmark building in London providing road and pedestrian access between The Mall, which extends to the southwest, and Trafalgar Square to the northeast. Admiralty Arch, commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of his moth ...
over the
Mall
Mall commonly refers to a:
* Shopping mall
* Strip mall
* Pedestrian street
* Esplanade
Mall or MALL may also refer to:
Places Shopping complexes
* The Mall (Sofia) (Tsarigradsko Mall), Sofia, Bulgaria
* The Mall, Patna, Patna, Bihar, India
* M ...
afforded accommodation, long desired, for the reorganisation of the Library, and for this arduous work Perrin was just the man. He gathered, from attics and disused rooms, many volumes lying idle and uncared for and gave them proper house room, and took in hand the task of compiling a catalogue. In a little over two years the progress made was eulogised in a special article in ''
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 ...
'' on 16 September 1910, which referred to the transfer of some 50,000 volumes to their new, spacious, and well-lighted apartments as having removed a long-standing reproach. A year later, on 20 September 1911, the new reading room attached to the library was formally opened by
Reginald McKenna
Reginald McKenna (6 July 1863 – 6 September 1943) was a British banker and Liberal politician. His first Cabinet post under Henry Campbell-Bannerman was as President of the Board of Education, after which he served as First Lord of the Admiral ...
, then First Lord. Inigo Thomas, in his speech on that occasion, bore testimony to the energy and perseverance exhibited by Perrin.
Upon his death the
First Lord of the Admiralty
The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...
referred to
Other work and legacy
From 1922 until his death Perrin was honorary editor of the ''
Mariner's Mirror
''The Mariner's Mirror'' is the quarterly academic journal of the Society for Nautical Research in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1911 and is abstracted and indexed by Scopus. It is published in partnership with Taylor & Francis. The ''M ...
'' and honorary secretary of both the
Navy Records Society
The Navy Records Society was established in 1893 as a scholarly text publication society to publish historical documents relating to the history of the Royal Navy. Professor Sir John Knox Laughton and Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge were the key lea ...
(since 1912: it owes to him its revival after the War) and, by appointment of the Admiralty, to the Trustees of the
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...
and MacPherson Collection at
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
.
In the course of his research work Perrin made himself proficient in foreign languages, and he became an expert
palaeographer
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
. He was a keen chess player and an amateur organist. He left a widow, but no family.
Since 2006 the
Flag Institute
The Flag Institute is a UK membership organisation headquartered in Kingston upon Hull, England, concerned with researching and promoting the use and design of flags. It documents flags in the UK and internationally, maintains a UK Flag Registr ...
has sponsored an annual public lecture on a flag-related topic, known as the 'Perrin Lecture' in honour of W.G. Perrin.
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin, William Gordon
1874 births
1931 deaths
Royal Air Force officers
British maritime historians
Vexillologists