IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Wildish D B H
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: WILDISH, V Adm Denis Bryan Harvey (b.1914)
Date(s): 1999 (1917-1999)
Level of description: Collection (Fonds)
Extent: 1 volume
Name of creator(s): Wildish | Denis Bryan Harvey | b. 1914 | Vice Admiral
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born 1914, son of R Adm Sir Henry William Wildish, educated at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, 1928-1931; entered RN as Cadet, 1932, sea service in HMSS RAMILLIES and REVENGE, 1932; transferred to Engineering Branch, 1933; Mid (E), 1933; RN Engineering College, Keyham, 1933-1936; Sub Lt (E) 1935; appointed to HMS NELSON, 1936-1938; Lt (E) 1937; RN Apprentice Training Establishment, 1938-1939; Damage Control Officer, HMS PRINCE OF WALES, 1940-1941; Staff of Fleet Engineer Officer, Far East Fleet, 1942; Engineer Officer, HMS ISIS, Apr 1942-Feb 1944; RN Engineering College, Devonport, Feb 1944-Sep 1946; Lt Cdr (E) 1945; Senior Engineer, HMS IMPLACBLE, Sep 1946-Aug 1948; Cdr (E) 1948; Planning Staff, Exercise Trident, 1948-1949; Staff of Engineer Officers' Admin Course, 1949-1951; Assistant Naval Attaché, British Embassy, Rome, Italy, 1951-1954; Engineer Officer, HMS EAGLE and Staff EO to Flag Officer Heavy Squadron, 1954-1956; Admiralty, Officer Planning Section, 2nd Sea Lord's Department, 1956-1958; Capt 1957; Admiralty Engineer Overseer, Southern District, 1958-1960; Deputy Director, Fleet Maintenance (Organisation), 1960-1962; Director of Fleet Maintenance, 1962-1964; Senior Officers War Course, 1964; Commodore, Naval Drafting, 1964-1966; R Adm 1966; Adm Superintendent HM Dockyard, Devonport, 1966-1970; CB 1968; V Adm 1970; Director General of Personnel Services and Training (Naval) and Deputy Second Sea Lord, 1970-1972.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Privately published memoir, D.B.H.W., covering his life and career, 1917-1999; including account of childhood and education; early service in RN, 1928-1933; decision to transfer to Engineering Branch, 1933; construction of HMS PRINCE of WALES and establishment of Damage Control Department, 1940-1941; account of engagement with the German battleship BISMARCK and the sinking of HMS HOOD, May 1941; account of 'Atlantic Meeting' between Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Aug 1941; the loss of HMSS PRINCE OF WALES and REPULSE, Dec 1941; service as Engineer Officer, HMS ISIS, Indian Ocean, 1942-44; post-war service in aircraft carriers HMS IMPLACABLE, 1946-1948 and HMS EAGLE, 1956-1956 and subsequent career as a 'Whitehall Warrior' and Adm Superintendent, Devonport.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
single volume
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Presented to the Centre by the family, June 2000
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Copy also presented to Imperial War Museum, London (GB 0062)
Related material:
LIDDELL HART CENTRE FOR MILITARY ARCHIVES, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON (GB 0099) holds Wildish's memoir of his father, The Life of Engineer Rear Admiral Sir Henry William Wildish, 1884-1973, aka The Rogue Elephant.
IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM, LONDON (GB 0062) holds the papers of Wildish's father, Sir Henry William Wildish (1884-1973), Engineer Rear Admiral; Correspondence and papers regarding his invention of a petrol engine torpedo 1912-1927; correspondence relating to 'damage control in ships', 1942; statistics relating to RN vessels out of action at Londonderry, Greenock and Liverpool bases 1941-1945; copy article by Wildish, `Some maintenance aspects of the Western Approaches Command in the Second World War', published in Journal of Naval Engineering, Vol 4 No 1, 1950; account of labour problems in shipyard control in the Clyde area, Scotland 1941-1945.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Sources: Who's Who, Navy Lists. Compiled by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM 25 Project.
Date(s) of descriptions: Aug 2001