Ralph Seymour (Royal Navy officer)

Commander Ralph Frederick Seymour, RN, CMG, DSO, born 6 January 1886, d. 4 October 1922, was a British naval officer. Throughout the First World War he served as Flag Lieutenant to Admiral Sir David Beatty, despite the fact that he did not possess a full training in signalling. During the Battle of Dogger Bank and the Battle of Jutland he was responsible for sending flag signals so ineptly worded that, after the event, they were considered to have diminished the British success in those conflicts. A badly-worded signal he sent during the German battlecruiser raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby on 16 December 1914 also caused Beatty's scouting forces to break off contact with the enemy, thus prematurely ending the pursuit. Beatty remained loyal and supportive of Seymour during and after the war, and took him to the Admiralty when he became First Sea Lord. After this, however, when Beatty's actions at Jutland began to receive hostile scrutiny, his attitude to Seymour changed and became much more negative. Seymour suffered a nervous breakdown, and was invalided out of the Navy in 1922. He committed suicide by jumping off Black Rock, Brighton, a landmark near his home since redeveloped into Brighton Marina.