Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Admiral Sir William Whitworth, K.C.B., D.S.O., Royal Navy, who was Vice-Admiral commanding Battle Cruiser Squadron and Second Sea Lord and Commander-in-Chief, Rosyth, during the Second World War

1914-15 Star (Lt. Commr. W. J. Whitworth, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (Commr. W. J. Whitworth. R.N.), good very fine (3) £300-£400

K.C.B. London Gazette 1 July 1941.

C.B. London Gazette 9 June 1938.

D.S.O. London Gazette 8 March 1918:
‘For services in Destroyer and Torpedo Boat Flotillas during the period ending 31st December 1917.’

Norwegian Royal Order of St Olav, Grand Cross London Gazette 13 January 1948.

Sir William Jock Whitworth was born on 29 June 1884 in Chatham, one of three children of Major A. W. Whitworth. He entered the Royal Navy, after Wimborne Grammar School, by spending two years on Britannia from September 1899. Early experience in command of a torpedo boat destroyer gave him a love of the small boats of the service and two spells as a flag lieutenant gave him a wider view of naval affairs.

By the outbreak of the Great War Whitworth was a Lieutenant-Commander in command of H.M.S. Cockatrice, part of the Fourteenth Destroyer Flotilla; in dockyard hands at the time of Jutland, he commissioned Orestes in which he remained for most of the rest of the war, and was gazetted D.S.O. for his services. Post war he served in the Naval Intelligence Division and was promoted Captain on 31 December 1925 and appointed head of the School of Physical and Recreational Training, assuming the appointment of Captain (D) of the Second Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean Fleet (1928-31), then serving at the Admiralty as director of Physical Training and Sports and head of the Naval Personnel Committee. The Invergordon Mutiny caused a reshaping of the personnel and welfare organisations within the Admiralty and Whitworth became Deputy Director of Personnel Services, proving his mettle as an expert in man management.

His reward after two years on shore was the appointment to command the flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet, H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth, then Rodney, flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, for six months, before being advanced to Rear Admiral on 20 July 1936. He then served for two years as Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, working closely with Duff Cooper and, then, Earl Stanhope. As such, his principal job was to arrange senior naval appointments; work for which he was appointed C.B. in 1938.

In June 1939, Whitworth was appointed Rear Admiral commanding the Battle-Crusier Squadron and was promoted Vice Admiral on 1 January 1940.

When the Germans invaded Norway, Whitworth was in Renown covering a mine-laying operation off Narvik. The German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were spotted early in the morning of 9 April, and a running fight ensued in appalling conditions with heavy seas and snow squalls. Nevertheless Renown succeeded in badly damaging Gneisenau. Whitworth gave chase but the Germans' superior speed allowed them to escape. The official historian wrote that this success was 'due to Admiral Whitworth's immediate engagement and vigorous pursuit under most difficult conditions' (Roskill, War at Sea, refers). An attempt to drive the Germans from Narvik was beaten off on 10 April, for which Whitworth blamed himself for not disobeying Admiralty orders. However, on 14 April he was ordered to destroy the German forces at Narvik. Transferring his flag to Warspite, and with nine destroyers, Whitworth took his force up to Narvik, destroying all eight German destroyers and one U-boat without significant damage to his squadron. A brother officer, quoted in Whitworth's obituary in the Daily Telegraph, said of him: 'He has applied destroyer tactics to the battleship, and we who served in destroyers are particularly proud of him' (The Daily Telegraph, 26 October 1973 refers). After the Norwegian campaign Whitworth remained in Hood, taking part in operations designed to prevent German raiders breaking out into the Atlantic.

Leaving Hood on 8 May 1941, two weeks before she was sunk, Whitworth became Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel. His remit was to cope with the vast expansion of the navy as it grew from its pre-war strength of 129,000 to 863,500 by the middle of 1944, including 72,000 in the Women’s Royal Naval Service. Promoted K.C.B. in 1941, he was advanced to full Admiral on 31 December 1943, and was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Rosyth, where his principal roles were to support the invasion of France and the liberation of Norway. For this latter, and for his performance at Narvik, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Royal of St Olav. He retired on 15 September 1946, the forty-seventh anniversary of his entry into the Royal Navy, and lived most of the rest of his life quietly in the hamlet of Stoughton, near Chichester. He died on 25 October 1973.

A comprehensive collection of Whitworth’s letters and papers are held by the Imperial War Museum.