Nickname(s) Harry Commands held HMAS AE2 Rank Lieutenant commander | Service/branch Royal Navy Role Commanding officer Allegiance United Kingdom Name Henry Gordon | |
Battles/wars World War I
World War II Died February 2, 1966, London, United Kingdom Awards Distinguished Service Order Movies Channel Crossing, Where's Charley?, Crackerjack, Four Days, The First Offence Similar People Henry King, Louis Levy, Albert de Courville, Tom Walls, John Guillermin | ||
Battles and wars World War I, World War II Years of service 1900–1920
1939–1945 | ||
Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker, DSO (2 February 1885 – 2 February 1966), commonly credited in films as H. G. Stoker or Dacre Stoker, was a Royal Navy officer of the First and Second World Wars, and a stage and screen actor. He was also a sportsman, active in polo, croquet, hurling and tennis, competing at Wimbledon and becoming the croquet champion of Ireland in 1962, aged 77. He was a cousin to the author Bram Stoker.
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Life
Stoker's naval career began in 1900 with training aboard HMS Britannia. He studied at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and, in July 1904, was promoted to sub-lieutenant. He volunteered for the Royal Navy Submarine Service. Aged 23 he was promoted to lieutenant, and his first submarine command. Later he was given responsibility to establish a submarine station on Gibraltar.
He served in the First World War as captain of the Australian Submarine AE2, which in 1915 was the first submarine to penetrate the mined narrows of the Dardanelles and thus to enter the Sea of Marmara. After a series of naval engagements there, AE2 was attacked by the Ottoman torpedo boat Sultanhisar. The submarine was scuttled and the crew captured, with Stoker using his acting talents to entertain fellow prisoners and to attempt to escape, unsuccessfully. Leaving the navy in 1920 to act, he was recalled to active service at the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1945 he again left the navy to act.