William George Elmhirst Ruck-Keene MVO (30 January 1867 – 30 January 1935) was an Admiral of 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 ...

. From 1896 to 1916 he commanded naval vessels, mostly armoured cruisers, with a break of three years spent training cadets at 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 ...

. His final command, from 1916 to 1919, was as Captain of the

Royal Naval College, Dartmouth Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

. In 1918 Ruck-Keene was promoted to Rear-Admiral, and he retired in 1920. He was promoted twice more whilst on the Retired List and became a full Admiral in 1927.

Career

Born at

Henley on Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Bucking ...

, Ruck-Keene was the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Ruck-Keene,"Admiral Ruck Keene", Obituary
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'' (f ...

'' dated 31 January 1935, Issue 46976, p. 16 a descendant of

Edmund Keene Edmund Keene (1714 – 6 July 1781) was an English churchman and academic, who was Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge and later served first as Bishop of Chester, then Bishop of Ely. Younger brother of the diplomat Benjamin Keene, the family were ...

(1714–1781), Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, and Bishop of Ely. His great-grandfather, the barrister

Benjamin Keene Sir Benjamin Keene (1697–1757) was a British diplomat, who was British Ambassador to Spain from 1729 to 1739, then again from 1748 until his death in Madrid in December 1757. He has been described as "by far the most prominent British agent in ...

(1753–1837), married Mary Ruck in 1780, and about 1837 his grandfather, the Rev. Charles Edmund Keene, changed the family name to Ruck-Keene by royal licence. His father was the eldest of six brothers. HMS Bacchante

The young Ruck-Keene was educated at

Stubbington House School Stubbington House School was founded in 1841 as a boys' preparatory school, originally located in the Hampshire village of Stubbington, around from the Solent. Stubbington House School was known by the sobriquet "the cradle of the Navy". The sc ...

, known at the time as "the cradle of the Navy", from where he entered the Royal Navy as a Midshipman. On 1 July 1890 he was posted to the Royal Yacht '' Victoria and Albert'' and in August was promoted to Lieutenant. On 8 July 1896 he was appointed Flag Lieutenant to Vice-Admiral Edward Seymour for Annual Manœuvres and in August 1896 was given his first command, HMS ''Opossum'', a newly launched ''Sunfish''-class destroyer. He was promoted to Commander on 6 November 1901 and was given a series of short-lasting commands of destroyers. On 12 March 1903 he was posted to take command of the elderly ironclad battleship HMS ''Superb'', and on the same day was also appointed as Executive Officer at the nascent

, which opened in the late summer. Ruck-Keene's command of ''Superb'' ended on 1 August 1903, leaving him free to take up his duties at the new

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 ...

training college when it opened at the beginning of September. He was promoted to Captain on 30 June 1906 and in January 1907 took command of HMS ''Bacchante'', an armoured cruiser, and was also made

Flag Captain In the Royal Navy, a flag captain was the captain of an admiral's flagship. During the 18th and 19th centuries, this ship might also have a "captain of the fleet", who would be ranked between the admiral and the "flag captain" as the ship's "First ...

to Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Barry of the 6th Cruiser Squadron, remaining as Flag Captain to Admiral Sir Henry Jackson when he took over the squadron from Barry in 1908. On 4 May 1909 he was appointed a Member of the

Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, or ...

, an honour in the personal gift of the king,

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

, and remained in command of ''Bacchante'' until October 1910. In April 1911 he took command of the Admiralty yacht '' Enchantress'', then in August 1912 of HMS ''Cochrane'', another armoured cruiser.Service Record of W. G. E. Ruck-Keene, in the National Archives, reference ADM 196/42, f.451. The

Great 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 ...

broke out in August 1914. On 27 June 1915, Admiral Jellicoe, Commander-in-Chief of the

Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the F ...

, shared with Sir Henry Jackson other officers' concerns that Ruck-Keene had become "lazy, lacks energy & has run to seed & is nervous".Letter from Jellicoe to Jackson dated 27 June 1915 in Jackson Papers at the

National Museum of the Royal Navy The National Museum of the Royal Navy was created in early 2009 to act as a single non-departmental public body for the museums of the Royal Navy. With venues across the United Kingdom, the museums detail the history of the Royal Navy operating o ...

, Portsmouth, accession number 255/4/4 On 30 June 1915 Ruck-Keene's command of ''Cochrane'' was terminated, and it was not until 21 February 1916 that he was given a new command, HMS ''Drake'', an elderly armoured cruiser. Three months later, with effect from 31 May 1916, Rucke-Keene was appointed as Captain of the

, where he remained until 21 January 1919, after the end of the war. In June 1917 a meeting of the Board of Admiralty had debated whether Ruck-Keene had a future in the Royal Navy.Notes of meeting in Jackson Papers at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth, accession number 255/4/4 On 1 January 1918 Ruck-Keene was promoted to Rear-Admiral, and he continued his service career until 17 February 1920, when he joined the Retired List at his own request. He was promoted to Vice-Admiral on the Retired List in October 1923 and Admiral on the Retired List in August 1927.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruck-Keene, William George Elmhirst 1867 births 1935 deaths Royal Navy admirals Military personnel from Oxfordshire Instructors of the Royal Naval College, Osborne Members of the Royal Victorian Order People educated at Stubbington House School Royal Navy admirals of World War I