George Tryon

Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, KCB (4 January 1832- 22 June 1893) was a British admiral who died when his flagship HMS "Victoria" collided with HMS "Camperdown" during manoeuvres off Tripoli, Lebanon.

Born at Bulwick Park, Northamptonshire, England and educated at Eton he entered the Royal Navy in 1848 as a cadet. After a period serving on the North American station, he saw action in the Crimean War on "Vengeance" and later ashore in the Naval Brigade. He was commissioned in November 1854 as a lieutenant. He served on HMS "Royal Albert" from 1855 until 1858, and for the following two years on the Royal Yacht.

He was commander (second in command) of HMS "Warrior", the world's first ocean-going iron-hulled armoured battleship from her commissioning in 1861 until 1864, after which he was in command of HMS "Surprise" in the Mediterranean until 1866. Promoted to the rank of captain he directed transport for the Abyssinian Campaign but was invalided back to the United Kingdom. From 1871 until 1874 he was private secretary to the First Sea Lord and then until 1877 captain of HMS "Raleigh" in India and later the Mediterranean.

From 1878 until 1881 he was captain of HMS "Monarch", also part of the Mediterranean Fleet. He then served two years ashore as secretary to the Admiralty and then in 1884 was promoted to rear-admiral and placed in command of the Australian Station. He was promoted to vice-admiral in June 1887 and knighted. In 1891 he was placed in command of the Mediterranean Fleet, the most powerful force within the Royal Navy at that time.

On 22 June 1893, the fleet was on exercises when Tryon's flagship, HMS "Victoria", sank following a bizarre order from him which brought it in collision with the flagship of his second in command, Rear Admiral Sir Albert Hastings Markham. Tryon went down with his ship, his last reported words being "It is all my fault". (Further details of the accident can be found in the HMS "Victoria" article.)

An odd pendant to this occurence was a report of an apparition of Tryon walking through the drawing room of his family home in Eaton Square, London, looking straight ahead, without exchanging a word to anyone, in front of several guests at a party being given by his wife on the same day as he drowned in the Mediterranean. [Christina Hole (1950) "Haunted England": 21-22]

Tryon was considered by many of his contemporaries to be a supremely competent yet radical officer [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/aj.cashmore/.features/sailors/georgetryon.html] , but with a strong and sometimes overbearing personality. This manner was felt to be a contributory cause to the accident. For instance, an article in "Society Journal Talk" in July 1893 (following the accident) said, "Much has been said about George Tryon's charm of manner, and the rest of it, but in truth he was, at any rate when officially engaged, a very brusque and dictatorial man. Unfortunately he was a 'viewy' man too, a man of theories...".

Nevertheless he tried to encourage initiative, in particular a celebrated cause of his was the "TA system", in which he made this flag signal (along with a one or two flag modifier) to indicate that other ships in his fleet were to follow the flagship's (or other designated leader's) movements without waiting for or acknowledging further signals, until otherwise advised. This was a radical departure from contemporary practice, in which all movements were precisely signalled from the flagship and acknowledged by their recipients, but which Tryon felt would be impractical during a naval engagement. Opinion was fiercely divided about it, for instance The Times newspaper considered it "unsound in theory and perilous in practice", whilst Rear-Admiral William Kennedy on the East Indies station declared following experiments with it that "the officers commanding thoroughly appreciated the idea which would be invaluable in time of war".

It is a tragic irony that the TA system which should have been Tryon's legacy was discredited as a result of, and unfairly blamed for, a disaster which took place when the Fleet was being directed according to the routine Naval "Signals Book".

Tryon's son was the Conservative politician, George Tryon, 1st Baron Tryon.

References

Bibliography

*Andrew Gordon, "The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command", John Murray.
*Richard Hough, "Admirals in Collision", Viking Press