Augustus Agar
| Augustus Agar | |
|---|---|
Captain Augustus Agar
|
|
| Nickname(s) | Gus |
| Born |
4 January 1890 Kandy, Ceylon |
| Died | 30 December 1968 (aged 78) Alton, Hampshire |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom
|
| Service/branch |
 Royal Navy
|
| Years of service | 1905–1946 |
| Rank | Commodore |
| Commands held |
HMS Witch (1926–27) HMS Scarborough (1930–33) HMS Curlew (1936) HMS Emerald (1937–39) Royal Naval College, Greenwich (1939) HMS Emerald (1939–40) HMS Malcolm (1940) HMS Dorsetshire (1941–42) Royal Naval College, Greenwich (1943–46) |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards |
Victoria Cross Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches |
| Other work |
Younger Brother of Trinity House (1936) Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Greenwich (1945) Vice President Sailors' Home and Red Ensign Club (1957) Published: Footprints in the Sea (1959); Showing the Flag (1962); Baltic Episode (1963) |
Commodore Augustus Willington Shelton Agar VC, DSO, RN (4 January 1890 – 30 December 1968) was a Royal Navy officer in both the First and the Second World Wars. He was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
In his naval biography, Footprints in the Sea, published in 1961, Agar described himself as "highly strung and imaginative." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that Agar "epitomizes the 'sea dog' of British naval tradition: honourable, extremely brave and totally dedicated to King, country and the Royal Navy."
Augustus Agar was born in Kandy, Ceylon, on 4 January 1890. He was the thirteenth child of John Shelton Agar or Eagar an Irishman from Milltown, County Kerry, who had left his native land in 1860 to become a successful tea planter in Ceylon. Agar was brought up in comfortable circumstances in a fine house with servants. Agar's mother, who was Austrian, died shortly after his birth, and at the age of eight he was sent with one of his brothers to school in England. All his brothers were educated in English public schools, and all his sisters were educated in Austrian or German schools. His father died in 1902 of cholera which he had caught during a visit to China.
Augustus ("Gus") Agar attended Framlingham College in Suffolk. He was now without parents or a fixed home and his oldest brother, Shelton, determined that he should go into the Navy. Gus, who idolized his older brother, willingly agreed. To prepare, he attended Eastman's Royal Naval Academy in Southsea.
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