KEPPEL, Adm Sir Colin (Richard) (1862-1947)

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0099 KCLMA Keppel
Held at	: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.kingscollections.org/catalogues/lhcma ›
Full title	: KEPPEL, Adm Sir Colin (Richard) (1862-1947)
Date(s)	: Created 1839-1948
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 7 volumes of which 5 oversized
Name of creator(s)	:

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born 1862; educated at Temple Grove and joined HMS BRITANNIA as a RN Cadet, 1875; served on HMS SULTAN, Mediterranean Fleet, 1878; transferred to HMS BLACK PRINCE, 1878; service on HMS WOLVERINE, Sydney, Australia, 1878-1879; Mid, 1878; served on HMS INCONSTANT, China, Japan and Hong Kong, 1879-1882; Egyptian Campaign, 1882; service onHMS DUKE OF WELLINGTON, Flagship, Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, 1882-1883; Royal Naval College, Greenwich, 1883; HMS IRIS, Mediterranean Fleet, 1883-1884; Sub Lt, HMS INVINCIBLE, 1884; served with Naval Bde, Nile Expedition, Sudan, 1884; HMSHIBERNIA, 1884; HMS ALEXANDRA, Mediterranean Fleet, 1884-1886; Lt, 1885; Equerry and Flag Lt to Adm HRH Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, Mediterranean Fleet, 1886-1889; commanded Torpedo Boat No 42, 1889; served on HMS UNDAUNTED, Devonport,Gibraltar and Malta, 1890; Equerry and Flag Lt to Adm HRH Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, Commander-in-Chief, Devonport, 1890-1893; served on HMS PEARL, 1893; service on Royal Yacht VICTORIA AND ALBERT and HMS ROYAL GEORGE, Portsmouth,1893-1895; Cdr, 1895; Capt of HMS SKIPJACK, Gibraltar and Malta, and HMS HARRIER, Crete, 1895-1897; served on loan to Egyptian Government for service on the river Nile, 1897-1898; commanded gunboat flotilla, Sudan, 1898; awarded DSO, 1898; landed at Fashoda,Sudan, and delivered message from Maj Gen Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Sirdar of Egyptian Army, to French garrison commander, Maj Jean Baptiste Marchand, Sep 1898; awarded CB, 1898; HMS WILDFIRE, RN Gunnery School, Sheerness, Kent, 1899; Capt, 1899; commanded HMS SPARTAN, Plymouth, 1899; commanded HMS RAINBOW, Devonport, 1900; Capt of HMS WARSPITE, andsubsequently HMS GRAFTON, and Flag Capt to R Adm Andrew Kennedy Bickford, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, 1900-1904; Capt, HMS IMPLACABLE, Mediterranean Fleet, 1905; Commodore of the Royal Yachts, 1905-1909; awarded CVO, 1906; created KCVO, 1908; R Adm, Second in Command, Atlantic Fleet, in HMS ALBEMARLE and HMS LONDON, 1909-1910; commanded HMS MEDINA on voyage to India with HM King George V for the King Emperor's Durbar, Delhi, 1911; created KCIE, 1911; appointed Equerry in Ordinary to HM King George V, 1913; V Adm, 1914; Sergeant-at-Arms, House of Commons, 1915-1935; retired as Adm, 1917; appointed GCVO,1930; retired 1932; died 1947.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Three scrapbooks containing newspaper and magazine cuttings, invitations, envelopes, menus, postcards, programmes, telegrams and correspondence, 1839-1906, notably including manuscript orders for Keppel, commanding Nile flotilla, from Lt Col Francis Reginald Wingate, ordering HM Gunboats SULTAN and ABU KLEA to Fashoda, Sudan, and for Keppel to communicatethe intentions of any Europeans found there to Maj Gen Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Sirdar of Egyptian Army, 18 Sep 1898; cuttings from The Illustrated London News, The Daily Graphic, The Navy and Army Illustrated, Black and White and The Penny Illustrated Paper, mostly relating to the Nile Expedition, 1885, the Sudan campaign, 1898, including the Fashoda incident, Sudan, Sep 1898;invitations and envelopes addressed to Keppel's father, Capt Hon Henry Keppel, RN, 1839-1856. Three photograph albums with 454 photographs relating to Keppel's career, 1888-1913, including service on HMS ALEXANDRA, Mediterranean, 1888-1889; the loss of HMS SULTAN, run aground, Comino Channel, Malta, 1889; RN Gunboats on the river Nile, 1897-1898; the launch of HMSDREADNOUGHT, Portsmouth, 1906; Keppel's service as Commodore of the Royal Yachts, 1905-1909; the funeral of HM King Edward VII, 1910; the coronation of HM King George V, 1911; Keppel's command of HMS MEDINA on voyage to India with HM King George V for the King Emperor's Durbar, Delhi, 1911; Royal visit to Berlin and Potsdam, Germany, 1913. Typescript volume entitled 'Reminiscences of Admiral Sir Colin Keppel GCVO KCIE CB DSO. Collected from his diary' by Rt Hon Sir Algernon Edward West [1947].

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

7 volumes

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.

Finding aids:

Summay guide on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, anddetailed catalogue available in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Placed in the Centre by the family in 1988.

Allied Materials

Related material:

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:

Date(s) of descriptions:
Jan 1999