Allegiance Canada Name Charles Kingsmill Rank Admiral | Years of service 1870-1921 | |
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Born July 7, 1855Guelph, Canada West ( 1855-07-07 ) Commands held HMS CormorantHMS GoldfinchHMS BlenheimHMS ArcherHMS MilduraHMS ScyllaHMS MajesticHMS DominionHMS Repulse | ||
Admiral Sir Charles Edmund Kingsmill (July 7, 1855 – July 15, 1935) was the first director of the Department of the Naval Service of Canada after playing a prominent role in the establishment of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in 1910. Along with Walter Hose, he is considered the father of the Royal Canadian Navy.
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Royal Navy career
Charles Edmund Kingsmill was born at Guelph, Canada West (now Ontario) in 1855 and educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto. He was the son of John Juchereau Kingsmill, Crown Attorney for Wellington County and Ellen Diana Grange. In 1870 he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman. He was promoted Sub-Lieutenant in 1875, Lieutenant in 1877, Commander in 1891, and Captain in 1898. During his career in the Royal Navy, he commanded HM Ships Goldfinch (1890–91), Blenheim (1895-95), Archer (1895–98), Gibraltar (1900), Mildura (1900–03), Resolution, Majestic (1905–06), and Dominion (1907).
The Mildura served on the Australia Station in these years. During Kingsmill´s command of the ship, she was part of the naval escort for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) to New Zealand aboard the chartered Royal liner HMS Ophir during 1901. The following year she was with the HMS Royal Arthur (flagship) and the HMS Pylades, visiting the Norfolk Island in July, and Suva, Fiji in August.
Royal Canadian Navy
In 1908, Kingsmill retired from the Royal Navy and returned to Canada. He was appointed honorary aide-de-camp to His Excellency the Governor-General in 1909. At the behest of then Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, he accepted the post of director of the Marine Service in the Department of Marine and Fisheries under then Minister of Marine and Fisheries Louis-Philippe Brodeur. The appointment predetermined his eventual appointment as Rear-Admiral RCN and director of the Naval Service of Canada upon the formation of the RCN on 4 May 1910.
He was made a knight bachelor in 1918. He was awarded for outstanding services as the Director of Naval Services of Canada 1910–1921.
Admiral Kingsmill retired on 31 December 1921 and died at his summer home on Grindstone Island near Portland, Ontario in July 1935. He is buried in the Anglican cemetery in Portland, where an Ontario Heritage Trust plaque commemorates his contribution to Canadian Naval history.
Medals of Admiral Sir Charles Edmund Kingsmill, Kt:
The junior officer quarters building at Venture NOTC, the Canadian Naval Officer Training Centre, is named after him.
On 3 January 2011 a portrait bust of Admiral Sir Charles Kingsmill was presented at Navy Headquarters, Department of National Defence in Ottawa to Vice-Admiral Dean McFadden to mark the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy. The portrait was sculpted by Canadian artist Christian Cardell Corbet.
Relatives
Kingsmill's cousin, Col. Walter Bernard Kingsmill, the son of Admiral Kingsmill's uncle, Nicol Kingsmill, was head of the 10th Royal Grenadiers and led the 123rd Battalion on the front lines in France during the First World War.
His daughter Diana was an Olympic athlete and journalist, who married historian J. F. C. Wright.