Guy D'Oyly-Hughes

Guy D'Oyly-Hughes
Born (1891-08-08)8 August 1891
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Died 8 June 1940(1940-06-08) (aged 48)
Norwegian Sea
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch  Royal Navy
Years of service 1904–1940
Rank Captain
Commands held HMS Glorious (1939–40)
1st Submarine Flotilla (1934–36)
HMS Cyclops (1935–36)
HMS Douglas (1934–35)
HMS Oberon (1925–28)
HMS K12 (1924–25)
Battles/wars

First World War

Second World War

Awards Distinguished Service Order & Bar
Distinguished Service Cross
Mentioned in Despatches

Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes DSO & Bar, DSC (8 August 1891 – 8 June 1940) was an officer in the Royal Navy.

Service career

Early life

Guy D'Oyly-Hughes was born in 1891 on Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, the son of Samuel Hughes, a British physician, and Kezia D'Oyly Hughes. At the age of nine, he was sent to Britain to complete his education, followed by his parents in 1901. They eventually settled in Southampton. D'Oyly-Hughes married Anne Margaret Gladys Crawford, with whom he had two daughters, Bridget, born in 1926, and Janet, born in 1928.[1]

First World War

During the First World War, Lieutenant D'Oyly-Hughes was a submariner and second in command of HMS E11, which was highly successful in the Dardanelles Campaign.[2] He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in June 1915 after a patrol in which his captain, Lieutenant Commander Martin Nasmith, was awarded the Victoria Cross. Hughes was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in August after swimming ashore from E11 with explosives and blowing up part of the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway.[3]

Second World War and death

In June 1939, as a captain, he was given command of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious. D'Oyly-Hughes had learned to fly and continually rejected the advice of the ship's professional aviators, according to Winton. Returning to Britain from the Norwegian Campaign on 8 June 1940, Glorious and her destroyer escort of HMS Acasta and HMS Ardent were surprised and caught by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Norwegian Sea. All three ships were sunk with the loss of at least 1,533 lives. D'Oyly-Hughes went down with his ship.

Glorious had been sighted in conditions of maximum visibility, a condition in which an aircraft carrier would normally have one or more aircraft out on a Combat Air Patrol. Glorious had no such patrol, and was unable to reach maximum speed before coming in range of the enemy's 11-inch guns. Winton describes D'Oyly-Hughes' lack of belief in the effectiveness of air patrols and the questions raised by numerous commentators, including eyewitnesses from Glorious and Scharnhorst,[4] about the Captain's judgement in this and other matters.

References

  1. ↑ "Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes ( - 1940) - Find A Grave Memorial". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  2. ↑ Shankland, Peter & Hunter, Anthony (1971). Dardanelles Patrol. London: Mayflower Books. p. 17.
  3. ↑ John Winton (1986), Carrier Glorious, Leo Cooper/Secker & Warburg, London
  4. ↑ The Tragedy of HMS Glorious, Channel-4 Television, London 1997
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