Cecil Irby Prowse
Captain Cecil Irby Prowse, Royal Navy (26 September, 1866 – 31 May, 1916) was an officer in the Royal Navy.
Life & Career
Prowse was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 1 January, 1890.[1]
Prowse was promoted to the rank of Commander on 30 June, 1901.[2]
Captain
Prowse was promoted to the rank of Captain on 30 June, 1907.[3]
From 16 May to 1 August, 1906 Prowse was appointed for study at the Army's Staff College at Camberley.[4]
Great War
Prowse was appointed Captain of the battle cruiser Queen Mary on 13 October, 1914.[5] The Commander of the ship, William M. James, later left an unflattering portrait of Prowse:
Prowse was a very different type to Hall or Bentinck [former Captains of Queen Mary]. He was one of the old-fashioned, rigid type. In the seventeen months I served him as Commander, he never once unbent. He found himself in a strange atmosphere. Our numerous reforms did not arouse his interest, let alone his enthusiasm. I believe he disliked them all and that the general air of well-being and high state of discipline in some subtle way irritated him because he felt that our success should not have been possible using methods with which he had no sympathy. But we had been so long in commission that even had he been so minded he could not put the clock back, and his assumption of command made little difference to the ship's company.[6]
Prowse's younger brother, Brigadier-General Charles Bertie Prowse, C.B., D.S.O., was killed a month later on 1 July during the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He had decided to move his 11th Brigade headquarters into the captured German front line, and while assembling men of the Seaforth Highlanders in the British trenches he was shot in the back by machine gun fire.[7]
Footnotes
- ↑ London Gazette: no. 26007. p. 7553. 31 December, 1889.
- ↑ London Gazette: no. 27335. p. 4780. 19 July, 1901.
- ↑ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 28034. p. 4433. 28 June, 1907.
- ↑ The National Archives. ADM 196/42. p. 423.
- ↑ Prowse Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/42. f. 423.
- ↑ James. p. 86.
- ↑ Davies; Maddocks. pp. 99-100.
Bibliography
- Davies, Frank; Maddocks, Graham (1995). Bloody Red Tabs: General Officer Casualties of the Great War, 1914-1918. London: Leo Cooper. ISBN 0-50520463-6.
- James, Admiral Sir William (1951). The Sky was Always Blue. London: Methuen & Co..
Service Record
- The National Archives. ADM 196/42.
| Naval Appointments |
