Varyl Begg
Encyclopedia
Admiral of the Fleet
Sir Varyl Cargill Begg GCB
, DSO
, DSC (1 October 1908 – 13 July 1995) was First Sea Lord
, the professional head of the Royal Navy
, from 1966 to 1968.
, London, on 1 October 1908, the son of Francis Cargill Begg, and his wife, Muriel Clare Robinson. He was educated at Malvern College
, before joining the navy as a special entry cadet in September 1926. He served on board , , and , before being transferred to , the gunnery school at Whale Island, Portsmouth
.
, flagship of the Home Fleet, before returning to Whale Island on the experimental staff in 1936. He was appointed flotilla gunnery officer in the destroyer in 1937, and two years later was gunnery officer of the 6 inches (152 mm) gun cruiser . It was on board the Glasgow that Begg saw action in the Second World War. The Glasgow participated in north Atlantic convoys, the Norwegian campaign
, and the occupation of Iceland, before being badly damaged in a torpedo attack by Italian
aircraft in Suda Bay, Crete
.
In 1940 Begg was appointed gunnery officer of the battleship in the Mediterranean when it was flagship of the commander-in-chief, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham
(soon to be First Sea Lord himself). Begg was in charge of Warspites main 15 inches (381 mm) guns during the battle off Cape Matapan
on the night of 28 March 1941. It was an engagement in which the ships Warspite
, Barham and Valiant
caught the Italian heavy cruisers and by surprise, with their guns still trained fore and aft, and sank them both in a brutally short action of less than two minutes. A third heavy cruiser, , and two Italian destroyers were also sunk in the engagement. Begg was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the action. He was promoted commander in December 1942 and then went to the gunnery division in the Admiralty, where he was involved in the development of gun design and tactics until after the war. On 7 August 1943 he married Rosemary Cowan. They had two sons, Timothy (born 1944) and Peter (born 1948).
in 1947 and was staff officer (operations) to a rear-admiral in the Mediterranean. From 1948 to 1950 he was captain in charge of the gunnery school at Chatham
. In the latter year he joined the destroyer again, this time in command and as captain of the 8th destroyer
flotilla. The Cossack served in the first two years of the Korean War
, and with other Commonwealth ships carried out blockading patrols of the west coast of Korea
as far north as the Yalu River
; it was also in the bombarding force of cruisers and destroyers for the crucial Inchon
landings in September 1950, which turned the tide of the war in the United Nations
' favour, and went on to make many bombardments in support of UN forces ashore. For his service in Korea, Begg was mentioned in dispatches in 1951 and appointed a DSO in 1952. From 1952 to 1955 he was captain of .
from 1954 to 1956, when it was a cadet training ship. Promoted to rear-admiral in 1957, he was chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
, from 1957 to 1958, and then flag officer, second in command, Far East Fleet, from 1958 to 1960.
Begg was promoted vice-admiral in 1960 and went to the Admiralty in 1961 as a lord commissioner of the Admiralty
and Vice Chief of the Naval Staff. At this time the first sea lord was Caspar John
, the first naval aviator to hold the office. They both worked together in the reduction of the three-fleet system in the Royal Navy as well as the difficult decision to disband the fleet in the Mediterranean.
In 1963 Begg went out to the Far East again as a full Admiral
, commander-in-chief of Far East Command
, and British military adviser to the South East Asia Treaty Organization, at a time of when President Sukarno
of Indonesia
was stepping up pressure on Malaysia. In 1965 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
.
He was appointed First Sea Lord in 1966, serving until 1968. He vehemently opposed plans to introduce new aircraft carriers which would deploy helicopters and vertical take-off fighters. Upon retirement, he was promoted to the honorary rank of Admiral of the Fleet
on 12 August 1968 and was appointed Governor of Gibraltar
the following year.
Outside of his professional career, Begg was a President of the Combined Services Winter Sports Association and President of Royal Navy Cricket.
(Varyl Begg Estate).
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Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy)
Admiral of the fleet is the highest rank of the British Royal Navy and other navies, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-10. The rank still exists in the Royal Navy but routine appointments ceased in 1996....
Sir Varyl Cargill Begg GCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, DSC (1 October 1908 – 13 July 1995) was First Sea Lord
First Sea Lord
The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service; it was formerly known as First Naval Lord. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff, and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS...
, the professional head of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, from 1966 to 1968.
Early life
He was born in KensingtonKensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
, London, on 1 October 1908, the son of Francis Cargill Begg, and his wife, Muriel Clare Robinson. He was educated at Malvern College
Malvern College
Malvern College is a coeducational independent school located on a 250 acre campus near the town centre of Malvern, Worcestershire in England. Founded on 25 January 1865, until 1992, the College was a secondary school for boys aged 13 to 18...
, before joining the navy as a special entry cadet in September 1926. He served on board , , and , before being transferred to , the gunnery school at Whale Island, Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
.
Second World War
In 1934 he qualified as a gunnery specialist. He was then made second gunnery officer of the battleshipBattleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
, flagship of the Home Fleet, before returning to Whale Island on the experimental staff in 1936. He was appointed flotilla gunnery officer in the destroyer in 1937, and two years later was gunnery officer of the 6 inches (152 mm) gun cruiser . It was on board the Glasgow that Begg saw action in the Second World War. The Glasgow participated in north Atlantic convoys, the Norwegian campaign
Norwegian Campaign
The Norwegian Campaign was a military campaign that was fought in Norway during the Second World War between the Allies and Germany, after the latter's invasion of the country. In April 1940, the United Kingdom and France came to Norway's aid with an expeditionary force...
, and the occupation of Iceland, before being badly damaged in a torpedo attack by Italian
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
aircraft in Suda Bay, Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
.
In 1940 Begg was appointed gunnery officer of the battleship in the Mediterranean when it was flagship of the commander-in-chief, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham
Andrew Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope
Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Browne Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope KT, GCB, OM, DSO and two Bars , was a British admiral of the Second World War. Cunningham was widely known by his nickname, "ABC"....
(soon to be First Sea Lord himself). Begg was in charge of Warspites main 15 inches (381 mm) guns during the battle off Cape Matapan
Cape Matapan
Cape Tainaron , also known as Cape Matapan , is situated at the end of the Mani, Laconia, Greece. Cape Matapan is the southernmost point of mainland Greece. It separates the Messenian Gulf in the west from the Laconian Gulf in the east.-History:...
on the night of 28 March 1941. It was an engagement in which the ships Warspite
HMS Warspite (1913)
HMS Warspite was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the British Royal Navy. During World War II Warspite gained the nickname "The Grand Old Lady" after a comment made by Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham in 1943....
, Barham and Valiant
HMS Valiant (1914)
HMS Valiant was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship of the British Royal Navy. She was laid down at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan on 31 January 1913 and launched on 4 November 1914...
caught the Italian heavy cruisers and by surprise, with their guns still trained fore and aft, and sank them both in a brutally short action of less than two minutes. A third heavy cruiser, , and two Italian destroyers were also sunk in the engagement. Begg was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his part in the action. He was promoted commander in December 1942 and then went to the gunnery division in the Admiralty, where he was involved in the development of gun design and tactics until after the war. On 7 August 1943 he married Rosemary Cowan. They had two sons, Timothy (born 1944) and Peter (born 1948).
Captain and Korea
Begg was promoted captainCaptain (Royal Navy)
Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
in 1947 and was staff officer (operations) to a rear-admiral in the Mediterranean. From 1948 to 1950 he was captain in charge of the gunnery school at Chatham
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
. In the latter year he joined the destroyer again, this time in command and as captain of the 8th destroyer
Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
flotilla. The Cossack served in the first two years of the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, and with other Commonwealth ships carried out blockading patrols of the west coast of Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
as far north as the Yalu River
Yalu River
The Yalu River or the Amnok River is a river on the border between North Korea and the People's Republic of China....
; it was also in the bombarding force of cruisers and destroyers for the crucial Inchon
Battle of Inchon
The Battle of Inchon was an amphibious invasion and battle of the Korean War that resulted in a decisive victory and strategic reversal in favor of the United Nations . The operation involved some 75,000 troops and 261 naval vessels, and led to the recapture of the South Korean capital Seoul two...
landings in September 1950, which turned the tide of the war in the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
' favour, and went on to make many bombardments in support of UN forces ashore. For his service in Korea, Begg was mentioned in dispatches in 1951 and appointed a DSO in 1952. From 1952 to 1955 he was captain of .
From Rear Admiral to First Sea Lord
He commanded the aircraft carrierAircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
from 1954 to 1956, when it was a cadet training ship. Promoted to rear-admiral in 1957, he was chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. Portsmouth Command was a name given to the units, establishments, and staff operating under the post.-History:...
, from 1957 to 1958, and then flag officer, second in command, Far East Fleet, from 1958 to 1960.
Begg was promoted vice-admiral in 1960 and went to the Admiralty in 1961 as a lord commissioner of the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
and Vice Chief of the Naval Staff. At this time the first sea lord was Caspar John
Caspar John
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Caspar John GCB was the British First Sea Lord from 1960 to 1963. He was pioneer in the Fleet Air Arm, and rose to become Vice-Chief of Naval Staff to Sea Lord Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma in 1957 and subsequently First Sea Lord from 1960 to 1963.-Early...
, the first naval aviator to hold the office. They both worked together in the reduction of the three-fleet system in the Royal Navy as well as the difficult decision to disband the fleet in the Mediterranean.
In 1963 Begg went out to the Far East again as a full Admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
, commander-in-chief of Far East Command
British Far East Command
The Far East Command was a British military command which had 2 distinct periods. These were firstly, 18 November 1940 – 7 January 1942 succeeded by the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command , and secondly, 1963 – 1971 succeeded by Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom Force...
, and British military adviser to the South East Asia Treaty Organization, at a time of when President Sukarno
Sukarno
Sukarno, born Kusno Sosrodihardjo was the first President of Indonesia.Sukarno was the leader of his country's struggle for independence from the Netherlands and was Indonesia's first President from 1945 to 1967...
of Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
was stepping up pressure on Malaysia. In 1965 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth
The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. Portsmouth Command was a name given to the units, establishments, and staff operating under the post.-History:...
.
He was appointed First Sea Lord in 1966, serving until 1968. He vehemently opposed plans to introduce new aircraft carriers which would deploy helicopters and vertical take-off fighters. Upon retirement, he was promoted to the honorary rank of Admiral of the Fleet
Admiral of the Fleet (Royal Navy)
Admiral of the fleet is the highest rank of the British Royal Navy and other navies, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-10. The rank still exists in the Royal Navy but routine appointments ceased in 1996....
on 12 August 1968 and was appointed Governor of Gibraltar
Governor of Gibraltar
The Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The Governor is appointed by the British Monarch on the advice of the British Government...
the following year.
Outside of his professional career, Begg was a President of the Combined Services Winter Sports Association and President of Royal Navy Cricket.
Legacy
His name is given to a large official government housing estate in GibraltarGibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
(Varyl Begg Estate).
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