Irvine Glennie

Admiral Sir Irvine Gordon Glennie KCB (22 July 1892 – 8 September 1980) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station.

Sir Irvine Glennie
Rear Admiral Glennie on board HMS Tyne when Rear Admiral (Destroyers), Home Fleet
Born(1892-07-22)22 July 1892
Died8 September 1980(1980-09-08) (aged 88)
Lymington, Hampshire
AllegianceUnited Kingdom United Kingdom
Service/branch Royal Navy
Years of service1905–1947
RankAdmiral
Commands heldHMNZS Achilles
New Zealand Division
HMS Hood
Senior British Naval Officer, Western Atlantic
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II
AwardsKnight Commander of the Order of the Bath

Educated as an officer cadet at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Glennie joined the Royal Navy in 1905 and served in the First World War in the Home Fleet and in the Grand Fleet.[1] He joined the Staff at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1922 and then commanded Destroyers from 1925.[1] He was appointed Flag Captain commanding HMNZS Achilles and Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the New Zealand Division in 1936[1] before becoming Commander-in-Chief of the New Zealand Division in 1938.[2]

Rear Admiral Glennie, far left, meets King George VI aboard HMS Duke of York at Scapa Flow, August 1943

He also served in the Second World War as Flag Captain commanding HMS Hood and Chief of Staff of the Battle Cruiser Squadron from 1939; it was in this capacity that he took part in the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir in July 1940.[3] He then served as Commander of Destroyers in the Mediterranean Fleet from 1941, taking part in the Battle of Crete and preventing Axis troops from landing on that island in May 1941, before becoming Commander of Destroyers in the Home Fleet from 1943.[1] He was made Senior Naval Officer, Western Atlantic, at Admiralty House, across the Great Sound from the Royal Naval Dockyard in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, from 1944; this role evolved into Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station in 1945 (which it had been previously until the Royal Naval establishment in the western Atlantic had been subordinated to the United States Navy with the entry of the United States into the Second World War, when control of the Atlantic had been divided between the Royal Navy in the East and the United States Navy in the west).[4][5][6][1] He welcomed President Harry S. Truman to Bermuda after the War[7] and retired in 1947.[1]

He died in 1980 at Lymington in Hampshire.[3]

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Irvine Glennie.
  1. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  2. Senior Royal Navy Appointments Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Biography of Admiral Sir Irvine Glennie HMS Hood Association
  4. "SHEFFIELD DUE AT BERMUDA TOMORROW: Flagship for C.C. Here; Has Notable War Record; BERMUDIAN IS AMONG OFFICERS IN CRUISE". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 29 August 1946.
  5. "NEW FLAGSHIP ARRIVES AT R.N. STATION HERE: Cruiser Sheffield Will Be Followed by H.M.S. Kenya". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 31 August 1946.
  6. "Sheffield Leaves Today: Visited By 175,000 During 5 "Showing The Flag" Cruises". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 26 October 1948. p. 1.
  7. "Admiral Sir Irvine Glennie, Commander in Chief of the British West Indies Fleet, calls on the President during his vacation cruise on the yacht Williamsburg to Bermuda". Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
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