Sir Osmond Brock | |
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1917 portrait by Francis Dodd
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Born | 5 January 1869 Plymouth, Devon |
Died |
15 October 1947 (aged 88) Winchester, Hampshire |
Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Service/branch | Royal Navy |
Years of service | 1882–1933 |
Rank | Admiral of the Fleet |
Commands held |
HMS Alacrity HMS Enchantress HMS Bulwark HMS King Edward VII HMS Princess Royal 1st Battlecruiser Squadron Mediterranean Fleet Portsmouth Command |
Battles/wars |
World War I Chanak Crisis |
Awards |
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order |
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Osmond de Beauvoir Brock, GCB, KCMG, KCVO (5 January 1869 – 15 October 1947) was a Royal Navy officer. Brock served as Assistant Director of Naval Intelligence and then as Assistant Director of Naval Mobilisation at the Admiralty in the early years of the 20th century. During the First World War Brock commanded the battlecruiser HMS Princess Royal at the Battle of Heligoland Bight and at the Battle of Dogger Bank. He then commanded the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron with his flag in HMS Princess Royal at the Battle of Jutland.
After the War Brock became Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff and then went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet. Following the Turkish victory in Anatolia at the end of the Greco-Turkish War, Brock organised the rescue of fleeing Greek civilians and, by skillful deployment of his ships, he dissuaded the advancing Turks, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, from attacking the British garrison at Chanak in the Dardanelles neutral zone. For his diplomatic handling of the Chanak Crisis, Brock was commended by Leo Amery, the First Lord of the Admiralty, in the House of Commons in 1923.