Roger Keyes 1st Baron Keyes Military person

Admiral of the Fleet Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron Keyes, Bt, GCB, KCVO, CMG, DSO (4 October 1872 – 26 December 1945) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he served in a corvette operating from Zanzibar on slavery suppression missions. Early in the Boxer Rebellion, he led a mission to capture a flotilla of four Chinese destroyers moored to a wharf on the Peiho River. He was one of the first men to climb over the Peking walls, to break through to the besieged diplomatic legations and to free the legations.During the First World War Keyes was heavily involved in the organisation of the Dardanelles Campaign. Keyes took charge in an operation when six trawlers and a cruiser attempted to clear the Kephez minefield. The operation was a failure, as the Turkish mobile artillery pieces bombarded Keyes' minesweeping squadron. He went on to be Director of Plans at the Admiralty and then took command of the Dover Patrol: he altered tactics and the Dover Patrol sank five U-Boats in the first month after implementation of Keyes' plan compared with just two in the previous two years. He also planned and led the famous raids on the German submarine pens in the Belgian ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend.Between the wars Keyes commanded the Battlecruiser Squadron, the Atlantic Fleet and then the Mediterranean Fleet before becoming Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. During the Second World War he initially became liaison officer to Leopold III, King of the Belgians. He went on to be the first Director of Combined Operations and implemented plans for the training of commandos and raids on hostile coasts.

Personal facts

Birth date	October 04, 1872
Birth place	Punjab Province (British India) , Presidencies and provinces of British India
Date of death	December 26, 1945
Place of death	Buckingham

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Military person

award	Order of the Bath Royal Victorian Order Distinguished Service Medal (US Navy) Mentioned in dispatches Legion of Honour Order of the Redeemer Order of the Iron Crown (Austria) Baronet Order of the Medjidie Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Distinguished Service Order Order of St Michael and St George Barony Order of Leopold II
military operations	Zeebrugge Raid Boxer Rebellion Battle of Heligoland Bight (1914) Gallipoli Campaign
military command	(1898–1899) (1901) (1916 – June 1917) (January 1908–1910 (November 1902) Dover Patrol (October 1917 – January 1918) Commodore-in-Charge Submarine Service (1912–1914) and (1899–1900) Battlecruiser Squadron Atlantic Fleet (1919 – March 1921) Commander-in-Chief Portsmouth (29 April 1929 – 9 June 1931) Director of Combined Operations (17 July 1940 – 27 October 1941) Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean (15 May 1925–1928)
service start	1885
service end	1885