The Keyes Papers at the British Library Michael St John-McAlister The Keyes Papers,1 acquired by private treaty in 1978, having previously been on deposit at Churchill College, Cambridge, are a fascinating insight into one of the twentieth century’s most important naval figures. The papers are a fitting addition to the Library’s impressive holdings of the papers of naval figures, including Nelson, Viscount Cunningham, Sir Arthur Power, and Keyes’s contemporary, Jellicoe. The first half of the twentieth century saw Britain struggling to maintain its long- established naval supremacy. In the years before World War One Germany asserted her naval strength. In the immediate post-war years, whilst Germany was no longer a threat, Britain had to contend with the growing naval power of Japan and the United States. By the mid- 1930s Germany had rejoined the band of naval powers threatening Britain’s hegemony and her naval building programme, despite being banned by the Treaty ofVersailles, had reached such a level that Britain felt the need to reach an accommodation with her erstwhile enemy.2 Roger Keyes was a central figure through all the vicissitudes of Britain’s naval affairs in this period. He was a senior officer in the early days of the submarine service, served with distinction in several theatres in World War One, was Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C) Mediterranean during an extremely tense period in the 1920s, fought to maintain the Royal Navy’s control of its own aircraft, and was instrumental in the development of commando forces for use in combined operations during World War Two. Roger John Brownlow Keyes was born in October 1872 at Tundiani Fort on the north west frontier of India. He was the second son of Gen. Sir Charles Patton Keyes, the commander of the Punjab Frontier Force. Keyes’s mother, Lady Katherine, was the sister of Field Marshal Sir Henry Norman. Keyes enrolled at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, aged thirteen and joined his first ship, HMS Raleigh, on the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa station before he was even fifteen. He saw active service in East Africa and during the Boxer Rebellion, during which he led two daring raids to capture four Chinese destroyers and a fort.3 These exploits set the pattern for Keyes’s career. 1 Add. MSS. 82373-82578. The papers have only recently been incorporated and are not yet foliated. References are either to entire volumes on one subject, to individual letters arranged by date in volumes of special correspondence, or to items found in the alphabetical general correspondence sequence. Other papers relating to Keyes can be found at Add. MSS. 81080 C, 81277 C, and 82579-82580. Several other institutions hold material relating to Keyes: see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/ for details. 2 The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of June 1935 permitted Germany to maintain a navy 35% as strong as Britain’s (45% for submarines), effectively condoning German rearmament. 3 These and the following biographical details are derived from a number of sources. Keyes wrote an autobiography covering the period to 1906, Adventures Ashore and Afloat (London, 1939), two volumes of Naval Memoirs (London, 1934 and 1935), The Fight For Gallipoli (London, 1941), and Amphibious Warfare and Combined Operations, Lees Knowles Lectures (Cambridge, 1943). He is the subject of a biography by Cecil Aspinall-Oglander, Roger Keyes (London, 1951). Many of the letters and papers in this collection have been published by the Navy Records Society in three volumes, The Keyes Papers, ed. Paul G. Halpern (London, 1979, 1980, and 1981). See also Paul G. Halpern, ‘Keyes, Roger John Brownlow, first Baron Keyes (1872–1945)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34309. 1 eBLJ 2007, Article 5 The Keyes Papers at the British Library A post at the Naval Intelligence Department of the Admiralty gave Keyes a major role to play preparing the Admiralty’s case for the International Court of Enquiry following the North Sea Incident. During the Russo-Japanese war, the Russian Baltic fleet sank a Hull trawler having mistaken the fishing fleet for Japanese torpedo boats.4 There followed three years as naval attaché in Rome, covering Vienna, Athens, and Constantinople, as well as the Italian capital. Keyes returned to England in 1908 and after two years commanding HMS Venus in the Atlantic Fleet was appointed Inspecting Captain of Submarines, and was promoted Commodore in charge of submarines in 1912. During his tenure he broke Vickers’s monopoly on submarine construction and instigated detailed research into foreign submarine design and construction, including visiting overseas manufacturers and witnessing trials of foreign submarines. All of these aspects, as well as papers on submarine defences, their limitations, exercises, co-operation between submarines and seaplanes, and the role of submarines in World War One are covered in the papers.5 Keyes saw active service in World War One, firstly in the submarine service and then, from February 1915, as Chief of Staff to the Vice-Admiral commanding the Eastern Mediterranean Squadron during the Dardanelles Campaign. He played a major role in planning the naval operations including support for troops landed on the beaches. As the campaign bogged down, he opposed evacuation preferring instead a renewed naval attack forcing the fleet through the Straits, but he was over-ruled. It was another glimpse of the pro-active stance Keyes had displayed in China. The papers cover all aspects of the campaign and include intelligence reports, operational orders and memoranda, landing orders, signals, the situation on the beaches after the troop landings, supplies and logistics, evacuation of the troops and Keyes’s alternative plan for forcing the Straits, the Malta Conference to discuss the division of the Mediterranean into Allied zones of operation, and maps and plans. There is also a large amount of material relating to the Royal Commission into the Dardanelles campaign at which Keyes gave evidence.6 Keyes’s wish to carry out an offensive action in the Dardanelles had been stymied but he was soon to get his wish to strike a direct blow against the enemy. Keyes, now a Rear-Admiral, was given a desk job as Director of Plans in the Admiralty in 1917.7 He hated it. He hated anything that kept him from the sea. He did not want to miss a chance to get at the German fleet should it venture out again (Keyes had missed the Battle of Jutland, the war’s only full-scale engagement involving battleships, as he was in the eastern Mediterranean at the time). Ironically it was this desk job that led to the action that made his name. A fundamental difference of opinion between the Admiralty and Vice-Admiral Bacon of the Dover Patrol over how best to prevent German U-boats from passing through the Dover Straits resulted in Keyes replacing Bacon.8 It was this appointment that led to Keyes’s finest hour. He devised a plan to use blockships to block the mouths of the canals at Zeebrugge and Ostend which German U-boats used to access the North Sea from their Bruges bases. Carried out on St George’s Day 1918 and opening with Keyes’s iconic signal ‘St George for England’, to which Capt. Carpenter on HMS Vindictive replied ‘May we give the dragon’s tail a damn good twist’, Operation ZO was a bold move. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded and Keyes was created a KCB.9 The operation was a partial success at Zeebrugge, but it failed at Ostend. 4 Add. MS. 82452. 5 Add. MSS. 82455-82465. 6 Add. MSS. 82466-82488. 7 Add. MS. 82494. 8 Paul G. Halpern (ed.), The Keyes Papers (London, 1979), vol. i, pp. 410-11. 9 Knight Commander, Order of the Bath. The Order of the Bath is England’s second highest order of chivalry. 2 eBLJ 2007, Article 5 The Keyes Papers at the British Library Not only did Germany have both bases operational again in a short space of time, but casualties were high.10 Even so, news of the raid ‘electrified’ Britain, as Paul Halpern puts it, and it did succeed in raising morale and the profile of the Navy which was used to working out of the public eye. At Zeebrugge and Ostend the Royal Navy had taken the initiative and carried out an offensive action against heavily defended enemy territory.11 Contained in the Keyes Papers is material covering all aspects of Operation ZO, including papers on planning, preparation and personnel; operational orders, progress reports from the course of the operation, and details of casualties; congratulatory telegrams, maps and plans, and papers on honours awarded. It also contains a large amount of printed material inspired by the operation, including commemorative postage stamps, poetry, publicity brochures for films based on the raid, and guides to the Zeebrugge Museum.12 With the glory of Zeebrugge and Ostend attached to his name Keyes continued his rise up the naval ladder. He was awarded a baronetcy in 1919, and appointed to command the Battle Cruiser Squadron, including a spell guarding the German fleet at Scapa Flow.13 In 1921 he was promoted Vice-Admiral and that same year became Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (DCNS) where he became embroiled in a struggle with the newly-created Royal Air Force over control of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA). Who should run the FAA was a subject which had exercised him since the earliest days of naval aviation, and would continue to occupy his thoughts for the rest of his life.14 His tenure as DCNS coincided with the realization that the world economic situation would mean military retrenchment and a consequent accommodation with Britain’s naval rivals.