Admiral Sir Archibald Gordon Henry Wilson Moore, KCB, CVO (2 February 1862 – 2 April 1934) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Third Sea Lord from 1912 to 1914.
Sir Gordon Moore | |
|---|---|
 Moore in 1916 | |
| Born | 2 February 1862 |
| Died | 2 April 1934 (aged 72) |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1875–1919 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands | 9th Cruiser Squadron (1915–16) 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (1915) 1st Cruiser Squadron (1914–15) 7th Cruiser Squadron (1913) HMS Dreadnought (1908–09) HMS Euryalus (1906–07) HMS Royal Arthur (1905–06) HMS Ariadne (1904–05) |
| Battles / wars | Anglo-Egyptian War First World War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Royal Victorian Order |
Naval career
editMoore joined the Royal Navy in 1875 and served in the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882.[1] He was promoted to captain on 30 June 1901.[2] In early 1903 he took part in the special mission (headed by Lord Downe) deputized by the King to travel to Iran to present the Shah with the insignia of the Order of the Garter.[3] He was appointed Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord in 1907 and Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes in 1909.[1] Promoted Rear-Admiral in 1911, he went on to be Third Sea Lord in 1912.[1] He served in the First World War, commanding the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron from 1914.[1]
As Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty's second-in-command at the Battle of Dogger Bank, Moore led the sinking of SMS Blücher in January 1915.[4] Heavily criticized for allowing the seriously-damaged SMS Seydlitz and SMS Derfflinger to escape together with the undamaged SMS Moltke, he was "quietly removed from the Grand Fleet and assigned to command (the 9th Cruiser Squadron) in the Canary Islands where the possibility of any appearance by German surface ships was remote".[5] Military historian Chuck Steele wrote in 2022 that Moore's transfer actually resulted from his complaints to Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, about Beatty's signaling failures; even Beatty privately expressed his belief that Moore was being scapegoated.[6]
In 1917, Moore went on to be Controller of the Mechanical Warfare Department.[1] He retired in 1919.[1] He was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Hampshire in 1921.[7]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f "Moore, Sir Archibald Gordon Henry Wilson". Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. Archived from the original on 31 July 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
- ^ "No. 27335". The London Gazette. 19 July 1901. p. 4779.
- ^ "Appointments". The Times. No. 36970. London. 6 January 1903. p. 8.
- ^ World War One By Priscilla Mary Roberts, p.585
- ^ Massie, Robert (1991). Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War. Random House Inc. p. 415. ISBN 978-0394528335.
- ^ Steele, Chuck (2022). "David Beatty". In Jennings, John M.; Steele, Chuck (eds.). The Worst Military Leaders in History. London: Reaktion Books. ISBN 9781789145830.
- ^ "No. 32540". The London Gazette. 6 December 1921. p. 9891.
External links
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Media related to Archibald Gordon Henry Wilson Moore at Wikimedia Commons
