Admiral of the Fleet William Henry Dudley Boyle, 12th Earl of Cork, 12th Earl of Orrery GCB GCVO RN (30 November 1873 – 19 April 1967) was a career Royal Navy officer who had achieved the rank of full Admiral before succeeding a cousin in 1934 to the family titles, chief of which is Earl of Cork. He was, at the time, serving as Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Fleet (1933–1935). His life is of interest as he was a member of a somewhat impov...
More
Admiral of the Fleet William Henry Dudley Boyle, 12th Earl of Cork, 12th Earl of Orrery GCB GCVO RN (30 November 1873 – 19 April 1967) was a career Royal Navy officer who had achieved the rank of full Admiral before succeeding a cousin in 1934 to the family titles, chief of which is Earl of Cork. He was, at the time, serving as Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Fleet (1933–1935). His life is of interest as he was a member of a somewhat impoverished branch of the British aristocracy and had an active career spanning some 54 years in the Royal Navy throughout the last years of the era when his country was the supreme naval power.
Boyle was the second of four sons in a family of nine, born to Colonel Gerald Edmund Boyle, a grandson of the 8th Earl of Cork, and to Lady Elizabeth Theresa Pepys, daughter of the 1st Earl of Cottenham.
"Ginger" Boyle joined the navy at the age of 12, in 1886, training for two years on HMS Britannia, a shore establishment. His first seagoing appointment...
Less
