Cradock was born at
Hartforth,
Richmond,
North Riding of Yorkshire, on 2 July 1862, the fourth son of Christopher and Georgina Cradock (née Duff). He joined the Royal Navy's cadet
training ship on 15 January 1875 and was appointed to the armoured
corvette of the
Mediterranean Station on 22 December 1876. Cradock was promoted to
midshipman on 22 December 1877 and was present when the British occupied the
island of Cyprus the following year. He was transferred to the
ironclad on 25 July 1879 and then to the corvette on the
China Station on 24 August 1880. Promoted to acting
sub-lieutenant on 21 December 1881, Cradock returned to England on 6 March 1882 to prepare for his lieutenant's exams which he passed a year later. His rank confirmed, he then passed gunnery and
torpedo courses later in 1883. Cradock was assigned to the ironclad in the Mediterranean after completing his courses and in 1884 was assigned to the
naval brigade which had been formed for service during the
Mahdist War. After serving in a support role during the war, he returned to his ship where he was promoted to
lieutenant on 30 June 1885. On 6 September 1890, Cradock was appointed first lieutenant of the
sloop-of-war which arrived in the
Red Sea shortly afterwards. The Mahdist War had flared up again and the British formed the Eastern Sudan Field Force around the garrison at
Suakin, on
Sudan's Red Sea coast. Cradock was assigned to the force in 1891 and participated in the capture of
Tokar. He then became
aide-de-camp to Colonel Charles Holled Smith, Governor-General of the Red Sea Littoral and Commandant, Suakin. For his service in this campaign, he was awarded the
Ottoman Empire's
Order of the Medjidie, 4th Class and the
Khedive's Star with the Tokar Clasp. After returning to
Dolphin, Cradock helped to rescue the crew of the , which was wrecked on the coast of the Red Sea near
Ras Zeith on 21 May 1893 during an around-the-world cadet cruise. After a brief time on half-pay and another gunnery course, Cradock was appointed to the
royal yacht on 31 August 1894 and published his second book,
Wrinkles in Seamanship, or, Help to a Salt Horse. He served as a
pallbearer at the funeral of
Prince Henry of Battenberg on 5 February 1896. Promoted to
commander on 31 August, he became the
second-in-command of HMS
Britannia. Before the beginning of the
Second Boer War in October 1899, Cradock was briefly transferred to the drill ship to serve as a transport officer, supervising the loading of troops and supplies for
South Africa, and was reduced to half-pay before the end of the year.
Command and flag rank On 1 February 1900 he was appointed in command of the third-class
cruiser , which was posted later that year to the China Station during the
Boxer Rebellion. He commanded a mixture of British, German and Japanese sailors during the
capture of the Taku forts on 17 June, led a contingent of British and Italian sailors into the
Tientsin on 23 June, and then led the naval brigade that relieved
Vice-Admiral Edward Seymour's troops besieged in the Pei-yang Arsenal three days later. Cradock was promoted to
captain effective 18 April 1901 and also received the
Prussian Order of the Crown, 2nd Class with swords as a result of his actions.
Alacrity arrived back in Britain in July 1901 and Cradock was placed on half-pay. On 24 March 1902 he was posted to the
protected cruiser on the Mediterranean Station, where from June that year he served as
flag captain to Rear-Admiral
Sir Baldwin Wake Walker, who commanded the fleet's cruiser squadron. Cradock was appointed a
Companion of the Order of the Bath on 26 June. He assumed command of the armoured cruiser on 20 December as Wake Walker shifted his flag to the ship, and
Andromeda returned home. When
King Edward VII visited
Malta on 2 June 1903, he appointed Cradock a
Member of the Royal Victorian Order. Off the coast of
Sardinia, Cradock saved Prince
Vudhijaya Chalermlabha, then serving as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, from drowning in April 1904. After the
Dogger Bank Incident, Wake Walker commanded the cruisers, including
Bacchante, shadowing the Russian
Baltic Fleet as it steamed through the Mediterranean in October en route to the
Far East. On 17 January 1905, Cradock assumed command of the armoured cruiser , but was invalided home on 17 June. He was on sick leave until September and was then placed on half-pay. Cradock became
captain of the battleship on 17 July 1906 and was relieved on 6 August 1908, While Cradock's position on the issues dividing the navy are not positively known, a passage from
Whispers from the Fleet may offer a clue: "... we require – and quickly too – some strong Imperial body of men who will straightway choke the irrepressible utterings of a certain class of individuals who, to their shame, are endeavouring to break down the complete loyalty and good comradeship that now exists in the service between the officers and the men; and who are also willing to commit the heinous crime of trifling with the sacred laws of naval discipline". After leaving command, he was again put on half-pay. He was appointed Naval Aide-de-Camp to Edward VII in February 1909 although he remained on half-pay. On 1 July Cradock was appointed in command of the
Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth and promoted to
Commodore second class while retaining his duties as aide-de-camp. Edward VII died on 6 May 1910 and Cradock stayed on until the end of October to assist his newly crowned son, King
George V. In the meantime he had been promoted to rear-admiral on 24 August 1910, and was relieved of his command in October. Still on half-pay Cradock reported to the
Royal Hospital Haslar on 24 February 1911 with
kidney troubles and discharged himself on 7 March to attend a staff course at the
Royal Naval War College at Portsmouth that lasted until 23 June. He came in sixth out of seven students, and was noted as "very attentive, but sick 1/3 of the term". On the 24th Cradock escorted visitors aboard a merchant ship to the
Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead. He became second-in-command of the Atlantic Fleet on 29 August, hoisting his flag aboard the
predreadnought battleship . When the
ocean liner ran aground during the night of 12/13 December near
Cape Spartel,
Morocco, smashing all of her
lifeboats, Cradock was ordered to take
London and the armoured cruiser to rescue the survivors in heavy seas. It took five days to get all of the passengers and crewmen off the ship, including
Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, his wife, the
Princess Royal, and the king's granddaughters. In recognition of his efforts, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 28 February 1912 and later awarded the
Sea Gallantry Medal. On 8 February 1913, he was given command of the
4th Cruiser Squadron, formerly the
North America and West Indies Station (the main base remaining the
Royal Naval Dockyard and the
Admiralty House at the North Atlantic
Imperial fortress colony of
Bermuda, and hoisted his flag in the armoured cruisers then to . Together with the American Rear Admiral
Frank Friday Fletcher, Cradock coordinated the evacuation of British and American citizens from
Tampico, Mexico, when that city was threatened by rebels. He then transferred his flag to on 18 February 1914 and sailed to
Galveston,
Texas, where he arrived at the end of the month. There he visited some of the refugees and was feted by the Americans, including a visit with the
Governor of Texas,
Oscar Colquitt before returning to Mexican waters. Cradock was in Tampico, when the Mexican Army briefly
arrested nine American sailors who were purchasing petrol in the city on 9 April. Rear Admiral
Henry T. Mayo, commander of the American forces off-shore, demanded an apology, but the Mexican government refused. The incident contributed to the American decision to
occupy Veracruz on 21 April. Cradock was able to evacuate some 1,500 refugees from Tampico,
Mexico City and Veracruz without incident.
First World War When the preliminary warning of war with
Germany reached Cradock on 27 July, there were two German
light cruisers in his area. The brand-new had just arrived to replace . Cradock dispersed his cruisers to find and track the German ships, but the Admiralty was concerned about the presence of numerous ocean liners in
New York that could be converted into
armed merchant cruisers, so they ordered him to concentrate three of his cruisers off New York harbour. He sent two of his ships northwards and followed them in
Suffolk before the declaration of war on 4 August. On the morning of 6 August,
Suffolk spotted
Karlsruhe in the process of transferring guns and equipment to the liner about north of
Watling Island. The two German ships quickly departed in different directions.
Suffolk followed
Karlsruhe, and Craddock ordered the light cruiser to intercept her.
Karlsruhes faster speed allowed her to quickly outpace
Suffolk, but
Bristol caught her that evening and fruitlessly fired at her before the German ship disengaged in the darkness. Craddock had anticipated her manoeuvres and continued eastwards, but
Karlsruhe was almost out of coal and had slowed down to her most economical speed and passed behind
Suffolk the following morning without being spotted before putting into
Puerto Rico with only of coal remaining. Cradock continued northward in obedience to his orders and, after rendezvousing with the newly arrived armoured cruiser in
Halifax, transferred his flag to her because she was faster than
Suffolk.
Dresden was ordered to rendezvous with the
East Asia Squadron under Vice-Admiral
Graf Maximilian von Spee in the Pacific.
Karlsruhe was sent to intercept Allied merchantmen off the north-eastern coast of Brazil. So the reported losses of shipping showed both ships moving south. In response, the Admiralty ordered Cradock southward on 22 August, put him in command of the South American Station the following month, and reinforcing his fleet with the elderly and slow pre-dreadnought battleship .
Good Hope was coaled at the
Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda (by
Bermuda Militia Artillery gunners assisting with coaling). On 14 September, Cradock received new orders from the Admiralty. They apprised him that the East Asia Squadron was probably heading for either the west coast of South America or the
Strait of Magellan. He was to detach sufficient force to deal with
Dresden and
Karlsruhe while concentrating his remaining ships to meet the Germans, using
Port Stanley in the
Falkland Islands to re-coal. To achieve this aim, he was to be reinforced by the modern armoured cruiser arriving from the Mediterranean. Until she arrived, Cradock was to keep
Canopus and one with his flagship,
Good Hope. Once he had superior force, he was to search for and destroy the German cruisers and break up German trade on the west coast, while remaining prepared to fall back and cover the
River Plate area. The day that the Admiralty issued this order, the East Asia Squadron appeared at
occupied German Samoa. Noting this apparent movement to the west, and the continuing depredations of the light cruiser in the
Bay of Bengal, the Admiralty concluded that von Spee meant to rendezvous with
Emden in the southwestern Pacific, and cancelled the transfer of
Defence to Cradock's command. Two days later, the Admiralty messaged Cradock that von Spee was moving away from South America, and that he should search the southwestern coast of South America for German ships without worrying about keeping his ships concentrated. But they failed to inform him that
Defence would not now be sent to him. By late September, it had become clear that
Dresden had passed into the Pacific Ocean. Cradock's ships fruitlessly searched several different anchorages in the area of
Tierra del Fuego, and returned to Port Stanley to re-coal on 3 October. Based on
intercepted radio signals, the Admiralty decided that the East Asia Squadron was probably headed east, and so advised him two days later, although he did not receive the message until 7 October.
The Hunt for the East Asia Squadron By late October Cradock had reliable intelligence that the East Asia Squadron had reached the western coast of South America. Cradock's fleet was significantly weaker than Spee's, mainly consisting of elderly vessels manned by largely inexperienced crews. However, the orders he received from the Admiralty were ambiguous; although they were meant to make him concentrate his ships on the old battleship
Canopus, Cradock interpreted them as instructing him to seek and engage the enemy forces. Clarifying instructions from the Admiralty were not issued until 3 November, by which time the battle had already been fought.
Battle of Coronel Cradock found Spee's force off
Chile in the late afternoon of 1 November, and decided to engage, starting the
Battle of Coronel. As it was useless for anything other than searching, he sent the
armed merchant cruiser Otranto away. He tried to close the range immediately to engage with his shorter-ranged six-inch guns and so that the enemy would have the setting sun in their eyes, but von Spee kept the range open until dusk, when the British cruisers were silhouetted in the afterglow, while his ships were hidden by darkness. Heavily disadvantaged because the high seas had rendered the main-deck six-inch guns on
Good Hope and unusable, and with partially trained crews, Cradock's two armoured cruisers were destroyed with the loss of all 1,660 lives, including his own; the light cruiser managed to escape. This battle was the first defeat of the Royal Navy in a naval action in more than a hundred years. Departing from Port Stanley he had left behind a letter to be forwarded to Admiral
Hedworth Meux in the event of his death. In this he commented that he did not intend to suffer the fate of Rear-Admiral
Ernest Troubridge, who had been court-martialled in August for failing to engage the enemy despite the odds being severely against him, during the
pursuit of the German warships Goeben and Breslau. The Governor of the Falklands and the Governor's aide both reported that Cradock had not expected to survive. A monument to Cradock, sculpted by
F. W. Pomeroy, was placed in
York Minster on 16 June 1916. It is on the east side of the north transept towards the Chapter House entrance. There is another monument to Cradock in
Catherington churchyard, Hampshire. There is a monument and a stained glass window in Cradock's memory in his parish church at
Gilling West. Having no known grave, he is commemorated by the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission on Portsmouth Naval Memorial. In Portsmouth, VA, USA a neighborhood was named for Adm. Cradock in 1917. Also named for Adm. Cradock was a high school in the Cradock neighborhood from 1917 until 1992. The neighborhood still exists and is still called Cradock. There is still a Cradock Middle School. The neighborhood and schools were named in honor of Adm. Cradock for his assistance to U.S. Naval forces during the Mexican Revolution. == Personal life ==