Vice Admiral Herbert Whitmore Savory M.V.O

Herbert ‘Bertie’ Whitmore Savory was the second son and child of Charles Harley and Melita Mary Savory. He was born on 15th July 1857 and baptised on 4th October 1857 in Burnham, Buckinghamshire.

Bertie joined the Royal Navy in 1870. He was twice Flag Captain to his close friend, Prince Louis of Battenberg (maternal grandfather of HRH Prince Philip). In 1906, whilst Captain of H.M.S. Diadem, he  transported, H.R.H. Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught on his mission to Japan to bestow the Garter on the Emperor. His last appointment before retiring in 1914, was Director of Transport at the Admiralty. It was in this capacity he saw his nephew off to India, as Reginald Arthur Savory recalled in the book ‘Plain Tales from the Raj‘:

“I had an uncle who was an admiral…and he came along to see me off. The result was that Second Lieutenant Savory, when he boarded His Majesty’s Transport ‘Dongola’ was seen off by this gold braided gentleman who put the fear of God into the Captain and the Officer Commanding Troops and everybody else!”

Bertie entered service in the Navy in 1870 aged 12 ½ . In 1882 he was promoted to Lieutenant and in 1886 was in command of the first-class torpedo boat T.B. 4. Between 1892 and 1895 he served aboard H.M.S Impregnable, the training brig H.M.S Pilot and H.M.S. Agamemnon. In 1895 Bertie was promoted to the rank of Commander when nearly 38 years old and then in 1901 he was promoted to Captain.

He commanded the cruisers H.M.S. Hawke (in 1903) and H.M.S. Diadem (in 1905). On the occasion of the special Mission of Prince Arthur of Connaught to invest the Emperor of Japan with the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 1906, Captain Savory was appointed a Member of the Fourth Class of the Royal Victorian Order (M.V.O.).

In July 1907 the Atlantic Fleet (based in Gibraltar) under Vice-Admiral The Hon. Sir Assheton Curzon Howe was dispatched to Quebec to celebrate the tercentenary. Bertie was Curzon-Howe’s Flag Captain and commanded H.M.S. Venerable. In August 1907 he was appointed to command the battleship H.M.S. Prince of Wales for a year and a half followed by two years as Captain of Training Ship H.M.S. Impregnable III.

He was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral in 1911 and at the end of that year he was placed on the Retired List at his own request. He was advanced to Vice-Admiral on the Retired List in 1916 and died a couple of years later. His grave is marked by marble curbing and a reclining marble cross at the north end of the main churchyard adjacent to the path in Penn, Buckinghamshire.

During World War I he was Deputy Assistant Censor.

He married an American lady, Kate Gregory, and they had two children, Doris Alberta and Archibald Louis Charles Savory.

They lived at 10 Eaton Terrace, Belgravia.