Dudley Pound

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound GCB OM GCVO RN (29 August 1877 - 21 October 1943) was a British naval officer who served as First Sea Lord, professional head of the Royal Navy from June 1939 to September 1943.

Early life

Pound was born on the Isle of Wight. His father was a barrister. His mother was an American, a difficult woman with whom he had a strained relationship.

Naval career

In 1891, Pound entered the navy as a cadet. He advanced rapidly, and by 1916 was a captain in command of the battleship HMS Colossus. He led her at the Battle of Jutland with notable success, sinking two German cruisers, beating off two destroyers and eluding five torpedoes.

Interwar career

Pound was posted to naval planning after the war, becoming director of the planning division in 1922. During Roger Keyes' tenure as commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in the late 1920s, Pound was his chief of staff.

He became Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1936, serving until 1939.

First Sea Lord

On July 31 1939, Sir Dudley Pound was appointed First Sea Lord. His health was doubtful even at this time, but other experienced admirals were in even poorer health. A naval medical officer was aware of an incipient brain tumour, but did not inform the Admiralty about it. Pound also suffered from hip degeneration, which kept him from sleeping, causing him to doze off at meetings.

There are sharply divided opinions of Pound from this time. His staff at the Admiralty found him easy to work with. However admirals and captains at sea accused him of "back seat driving" and other errors, and he had some serious clashes with Admiral John Tovey, the commander of the Home Fleet. Winston Churchill, with whom he worked from September 1939, found him fairly easy to dominate. However, he was described in a recent radio programme as a "cunning old badger" who had used guile to frustrate Churchill's dramatic idea of sending a battle fleet into the Baltic early in the War.

Perhaps Pound's greatest achievement was his successful campaign against German U-boat activity and the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945). His most criticized decision was ordering the dispersal of Arctic Convoy PQ-17.

In July 1943 Pound's wife died; by this time it was clear that his health was declining, and after suffering two strokes he resigned formally on 5 October 1943.

"The next day, the King's Private Secretary (Sir Alan Lascelles) called at the Royal Masonic Hospital and gave the dying admiral the insignia of the Order of Merit.

Pound had been appointed to the Order of Merit on 3 September 1943, the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the war, having been offered the award on 30 July 1943, "in recognition of your long and most eminent service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the four arduous years of war throughout which you have held the post of First Sea Lord."

Pound died on 21 October 1943 and after a funeral in Westminster Abbey, his ashes and those of his wife were scattered at sea.

Notes

References

• Ludovic Kennedy: Pursuit: The Sinking of the Bismarck
• Stephen Roskill: Churchill and the Admirals
• Stephen Roskill: The War at Sea (UK Official History)
• Stephen Roskill Naval Policy Between the Wars
• Corelli Barnett: Engage the Enemy More Closely
• Malcolm H. Murfett: The First Sea Lords from Fisher to Mountbatten
• Heathcote, T. A. (2002). The British Admirals of the Fleet 1734 - 1995. Pen & Sword Ltd. ISBN 0 85052 835 6
• Career history
• David J. Irving: Und Deutschlands Städte starben nicht: Köln [And the German towns have not died: Cologne], 1964, p. 21-44 (read with caution because whole Barbarossa is missing in this book)