40 Facts About Reginald Drax

Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, KCB, DSO, JP, DL, commonly known as Sir Reginald Plunkett or Sir Reginald Drax, was an Anglo-Irish admiral.

Edward inherited the paternal estates in Ireland, while Reginald was bequeathed most of his mother's inheritance across portions of the West Indies, Kent, Surrey, Dorset, Wiltshire and Yorkshire.

Reginald Drax extended his surname by special Royal licence in 1916, and was noted for the quadruple-name result, Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.

Sir Reginald was born in Marylebone, Westminster, the younger son of John Plunkett, 17th Baron of Dunsany and his wife, Ernle Elizabeth Louisa Maria Grosvenor Burton, later Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax.

Reginald Drax was educated at Cheam School and joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14, training aboard the stationary school ship HMS Britannia from July 1894 to 1896.

Reginald Drax's parents were distant cousins who came from influential and wealthy families.

Reginald Drax's father was the 17th Lord Dunsany, one of the oldest titles in the Peerage of Ireland.

Reginald Drax died in 1916, leaving Reginald the majority of her vast estates in Dorset, Kent, Surrey, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, and the West Indies.

Reginald Drax assumed the additional surnames of Ernle-Erle-Drax on 4 October 1916 by royal licence.

In 1896, Reginald Drax passed out of the Britannia as a midshipman.

Reginald Drax hoped that it would contribute to a projected official tactical handbook.

Reginald Drax expected that visibility in the North Sea would limit the maximum range of battle fleet duels to 10,000 yards, but recognised that the need to stay outside improving torpedo range would increase gunnery ranges.

Reginald Drax discussed in the book how to utilise cruisers as a fast wing to the battle fleet; the possible tactics of an inferior fleet, such as the High Seas Fleet; and the impact of ships zigzagging would have on gunnery.

The Times obituary claimed that Reginald Drax's book was dismissed by the skeptical older generation of admirals, who thought it highly presumptuous for a lowly lieutenant to write with authority on naval tactics.

In 1912, when Winston Churchill instituted the Admiralty War Staff, Reginald Drax was the first of 15 officers selected to attend the new staff officer course.

Reginald Drax was promoted to commander during the course and then appointed War Staff Officer to Sir David Beatty in the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, an appointment he held until his promotion in 1916.

Reginald Drax served during the First World War aboard the battlecruiser HMS Lion and was present at the naval battles of Heligoland Bight, Dogger Bank and Jutland.

Reginald Drax was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1918 for his command of HMS Blanche.

Reginald Drax held a series of senior naval appointments between the wars.

Reginald Drax then served as President of the Naval Allied Control Commission in Germany from 1923 to 1924.

Reginald Drax argued that morale was the most important of his trio, and to win a battle required aggressive officers prepared to take risks by engaging the enemy fleet head-on and close-in.

In 1935, Reginald Drax rewrote the War Plans to call for officers to be aware of their commanding admiral's plans before a battle occurred instead of waiting for orders from the flagship during the battle, and an aggressive mentality in a ship's officers that called for them to take advantage of any unexpected chance that might emerge during a battle.

Reginald Drax charged that too many Royal Navy officers were too passive and would not act unless ordered to.

Reginald Drax maintained that in wartime a captain of a ship should open fire on an enemy warship upon sight instead of passively waiting for orders from his admiral to open fire as he argued the latter was a highly dangerous practice.

Reginald Drax retired in 1938, but was brought out of retirement by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Roger Backhouse as the best man to plan out how to execute the Singapore strategy.

Backhouse's plans to execute the Singapore strategy had called for sending a force of five or four battleships to Singapore, but Reginald Drax changed the Singapore strategy by calling for a "flying squadron" to be sent to Singapore with more forces to go east if necessary.

Reginald Drax's plans called for the "flying squadron" to confront the Japanese fleet in the South China Sea while he called for another force to be stationed in Singapore that was to consist of 8 cruisers, 17 destroyers, 15 submarines, 12 motor torpedo boats, and two minelayers for the protection of the trade routes and for the defense of Singapore itself.

Reginald Drax admitted that his plan would require the British to stay on the defensive on the account of the numerical superiority of the Japanese Navy and it would be impossible to deliver a "knock-out blow" against Japan with the forces envisioned.

Reginald Drax argued that Britain needed control of the Mediterranean Sea both to supply and reinforce the forces in Singapore and to allow the necessary numbers to take on Japan.

Reginald Drax noted that the location of Italy in the central Mediterranean required any British naval forces going east to enter the Suez canal on the way to Singapore to first sail past Italy, which led him to argue that the Regia Marina had to be eliminated first to execute the Singapore strategy.

Reginald Drax argued that in the event of war, the Japanese would try to capture Singapore.

Reginald Drax argued that there were two ways that the Japanese would come, namely the "direct approach" of a landing at Singapore or the "step-by-step approach" of first capturing Hong Kong and Brunei as the prelude to taking Singapore.

Reginald Drax argued that the defenses of Singapore had to be strengthened to prevent the "direct approach" while in the case of the "step-by-step approach", British aircraft, submarines and light vessels should try to interdict Japanese ships in the South China Sea.

Reginald Drax was the British half of the Anglo-French delegation sent to Moscow in August 1939 alongside General Joseph Doumenc to discuss a possible alliance with the USSR with Soviet Defense Commissar Kliment Voroshilov.

Reginald Drax claimed to Maisky that he needed a ship because of all the excess baggage he was bringing with him to Moscow, an explanation that Maisky did not find very believable.

Reginald Drax had been ordered to go as slowly as possible to Moscow.

The Soviets did not take the delegation seriously because Reginald Drax did not have any power to make decisions without the approval of the British government, rendering him next to powerless.

In December 1939, Reginald Drax was appointed Commander-in-Chief, The Nore, serving until 1941.

Reginald Drax faced the multiple threats of acoustic mines and magnetic mines as well as attacks from Wehrmacht air and surface vessels, especially after the fall of the Netherlands and of Belgium.

Alongside Admiral Herbert Richmond and Vice-Admiral Kenneth Dewar, Reginald Drax was considered to be an intellectual with controversial views, including the need for naval reform.