Admiral Sir Frederic Charles Dreyer, GBE, KCB (8 January 1878 – 11 December 1956) was an officer of the Royal Navy. A gunnery expert, he developed a fire control system for British warships, and served as flag captain to Admiral Sir John Jellicoe at the Battle of Jutland. He retired with the rank of admiral in 1943, having served through two world wars and having already retired once.
Royal Navy career
Early years
At Dartmouth Dreyer performed well in his examinations and was placed fifth in his term. He then served as a midshipman in HMS Anson (1893–1896) and HMS Barfleur (1896–1897). In nearly all his subsequent examinations for promotions he obtained Class 1 certificates—for sub-lieutenant, lieutenant (July 1898, while aboard HMS Repulse) and then gunnery lieutenant. In 1900 he authored a book called How to Get a First Class in Seamanship. He came first in his class of three in the advanced course for gunnery and torpedo lieutenants at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1901, after which he was posted to the staff of the gunnery school at Sheerness. He served as gunnery officer to the cruiser HMS Scylla for annual manoeuvres during summer 1902, then was lent to the protected cruiser HMS Hawke for a trooping trip to the Mediterranean (August–September 1902). He was appointed to the battleship HMS Hood in the Mediterranean from September 1902, but the ship's rudder had been damaged and the ship proceeded home to be repaired and paid off at Plymouth. Dreyer was reappointed to the Hawke on 13 January 1903 for another trooping voyage to Malta, and when she was paid off in March, he was appointed to the staff of HMS Excellent, then under the command of Captain Percy M. Scott. After two months at Excellent, Scott submitted Dreyer's name for appointment as Gunnery Officer to the new battleship HMS Exmouth.
From June 1903, Dreyer was posted as gunnery officer to the Exmouth in the Mediterranean. In 1904 Exmouth became the flagship of the British Home Fleet whereupon he became gunnery advisor to the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson. From 1904 to 1907 Exmouth came first in the Home Fleet's (later Channel Fleet) gunlayer tests and battle practices. In 1905 he served on a calibration committee chaired by the Inspector of Target Practice, Rear Admiral Percy Scott. He was posted as experimental gunnery officer to the first dreadnought battleship HMS Dreadnought on her experimental cruise of 1907 on "Special Service" to assist with gunnery trials.
Admiralty and war service
On his return, and upon the recommendation of Admiral Wilson, Dreyer was promoted commander and appointed Assistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance (DNO), John Jellicoe. At the end of 1907 he assisted in the trials of Arthur Hungerford Pollen's Argo rangefinder mounting and plotter on the cruiser HMS Ariadne. He returned to the Admiralty, under the new DNO Captain Reginald Bacon and remained there until 1909, when he was appointed commander (executive officer) in the new dreadnought HMS Vanguard, then completing in Barrow-in-Furness. In 1910 Dreyer was invited by Vice Admiral Jellicoe to be his flag commander, first in HMS Prince of Wales (flagship of the Atlantic Fleet) and then in HMS Hercules (flagship of the 2nd Division of the Home Fleet).
On Jellicoe's advice, Dreyer was given command of the scout cruiser HMS Amphion in 1913, with promotion to captain in June. That year Amphion came first out of the entire navy in the gunlayer's test and first in the vessel's type in battle practice. In October, 1913 he became flag captain (commander of the flagship) to Rear Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot in the battleship HMS Orion (flagship Rear Admiral 2nd Battle Squadron) until 1915. At the behest of Jellicoe, now Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, Dreyer was made flag captain of HMS Iron Duke, serving at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
Dreyer moved to the Admiralty with Jellicoe as the Assistant Director of the Anti-Submarine Division. In March 1917 he was appointed DNO, where he formed a committee to design and produce a new type of armour-piercing shell, as the existing type had proved woefully unreliable. He was appointed to the Naval Staff as Director of Naval Artillery and Torpedoes in 1918. Following the Armistice he was appointed commodore, 2nd class and served as Chief of Staff to Admiral Jellicoe on his Naval Mission to India and the Dominions on HMS New Zealand, between 1919 and 1920.
Post war
Dreyer returned to the Admiralty as Director of the Gunnery Division from 1920 to 1922. He went to sea commanding the battlecruiser HMS Repulse for a year, before serving as Aide-de-camp to HM the King. In late 1923 he was promoted rear admiral. In 1924 he became a Lord Commissioner of Admiralty as Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff, and instituted the Tactical School at Portsmouth.
In 1927 Dreyer returned to sea as commander of the Battlecruiser Squadron, flying his flag in HMS Hood. In 1929 he became a vice admiral and the following year became Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. He had previously entertained hopes of becoming the commander of the Atlantic Fleet after his tenure at the Admiralty. However, the tainting by association of the Board of which he was part by the Invergordon Mutiny in 1931, with the consequent effect on that fleet, meant that Dreyer was destined never to command it.
In 1932 Dreyer was promoted to full admiral and in 1933 given command of the China Station where he served until 1936. He retired in 1939 only to volunteer as a Convoy Commodore in the Royal Naval Reserve upon the outbreak of the Second World War. He was on the staff of the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Home Forces in 1940 as an advisor on anti-invasion measure, before becoming Inspector of Merchant Navy Gunnery (1941–1942). He then was appointed as Chief of Naval Air Services (1942), before his final brief appointment as Deputy Chief of Naval Air Equipment in 1943. He then returned to the retired list for the second time. His memoirs were published as The Sea Heritage: A Study in Maritime Warfare.