Christopher Cradock

Early life and career

Cradock was born at Hartforth, Richmond, North Yorkshire. He entered the Royal Navy in 1875, and saw action in the Mediterranean, serving with distinction. On 1 February 1900 he was appointed in command of the cruiser HMS Alacrity, which later that year was posted to China during the Boxer Rebellion. He commanded a mixture of British, German and Japanese sailors including Charles C. Dix during the capture of the Taku forts, and was promoted captain in April 1901 and received the Prussian Order of the Crown with swords as a result.

On 24 March 1902 he was posted to HMS Andromeda at the Mediterranean Station, where from June that year he served as flag captain to Rear-Admiral Sir Baldwin Wake Walker. Promoted to rear-admiral in 1910, he was involved in the sea rescue of the passengers and crew of the SS Delhi in December 1911. He was awarded the SGM and KCVO in 1912. In February 1913, he was given command of the North America and West Indies Station. From at least 21 until 26 April 1914, Cradock was at Veracruz on HMS Essex during the United States occupation of Veracruz.

Death at the Battle of Coronel

With the start of the First World War, in August 1914, Cradock, commanding the 4th Squadron of the Royal Navy and stationed at Stanley, had to deal with Admiral Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron, which had sailed from the Pacific Ocean and had made it way towards the western coast of South America; . Cradock's fleet was significantly weaker than Spee's, consisting of mainly elderly vessels manned by largely inexperienced crews. However, the orders he received from the Admiralty were ambiguous, and although they were meant to make him concentrate on the old but well-armed battleship Canopus, Cradock interpreted them as instructing him to seek and engage the enemy forces; clarifying instructions were not issued until 3 November, by which time the battle had already been fought.

Cradock found Spee's force off Chile in the late afternoon of 1 November, and decided to engage, starting the Battle of Coronel. He tried to close the range to engage immediately, so that the enemy would have the setting sun in their eyes, but von Spee kept the range until dusk, when the British cruisers were silhouetted in the afterglow, while his ships were hidden by darkness. Heavily disadvantaged because of their awkward gun placements, and poorly trained crews, Cradock's flagship HMS Good Hope and the HMS Monmouth were destroyed with the loss of all 1570 lives, including his own; the light cruiser Glasgow and the armed merchant cruiser Otranto managed to escape. This battle was the first defeat of the Royal Navy in a naval action in more than a hundred years.

Departing from Port Stanley he had left behind a letter to be forwarded to Admiral Hedworth Meux in the event of his death. In this he commented that he did not intend to suffer the fate of Rear-Admiral Ernest Troubridge, who in August had been courtmartialled for failing to engage the enemy despite the odds being severely against him, during the pursuit of the German warships Goeben and Breslau. The Governor of the Falklands and the Governor's aide both reported that Cradock had not expected to survive.

A monument to Admiral Cradock was placed in York Minster. It is on the east side of the North Transept towards the Chapter House entrance. There is another monument to Cradock in Catherington churchyard, Hampshire. There is a monument and a stained glass window in Cradock's memory in his parish church at Gilling West. Having no known grave, he is commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

There is a neighbourhood in Portsmouth, Virginia, named after him.

Personal life

Cradock never married, but kept a dog which accompanied him at sea. He commented that he would choose to die either during an accident while hunting (this was his favourite pastime), or during action at sea.