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Reminiscences of H.M.S. Cyclops 1914-1918.
By K.R.S. 132pp., 4to, dup. typecsript, rectos only. Edition of 25 copies privately circulated by the Author. [1921].
#70025
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War memoirs of Lt.-Cdr. Sir Kenneth Raydon Swan, OBE, KC (1877-1973), who was Ed. at Rugby & Balliol College, Oxford, was called to the Bar in 1902 & practised at 1 Essex Court in the Temple. Despite having no previous military or naval experience, "A few days after the fateful 4th August, 1914 I wrote to Vincent Baddeley, who was then Financial Secretary of the Admiralty, to offer my services in any capacity in which I could be useful." On the 27th August Baddeley contacted him: "Two volunteers were wanted to go up to Scapa to act as coders & decoders... I was in Vincent's room at the Admiralty by ten o'clock on the 28th & there he explained to E.H.Y. [E. Hilton Young] & myself what the business was. HMS 'Cyclops' was clamouring for supplementary officers to cope with the multifarious duties which had so suddenly been thrust upon her. In particular she wanted help in the Coding Office." This work was supposed to last a few weeks, then Swan was to return to his legal business. In the event he remained in naval uniform - for he & Young were presented with RNVR commissions before they travelled north on the night sleeper - for the next five years. He describes his work as well as the other characters on board & the social life of the vessel. In the aftermath of Jutland, when the battered fleet returned, the author's duties were: "those of undertaker. With a working party of a hundred seamen I had to get the coffins landed & conveyed to the cemetery... It was necessary to tranship the coffins & carry them in a small motor boat, four or five at a time, and hoist them up to eight feet onto the jetty... then they were conveyed by farm carts... to the cemetery... & placed in the graves..." Goes on to describe the funeral ceremony &c. Note: Cyclops was a former merchant ship, carrying six four-inch guns but remained in home waters as a "repair ship" during WW1, when Swan served aboard until June 1918. Orig. printed paper covd. boards with cloth backstrip, blocked to front with title & author's initials, neatly rebacked with later leather lettering label, VG thus & rare with presentation inscrip. "To Ralph Tatlock from Kenneth R. Swan / 9.iv.1921." Signed photo. in civilian clothes dated 1931 loosely inserted, also some research notes, copy obits., &c. Rare: Swan produced just 25 copies of these memoirs, all of which he privately circulated to friends & relatives.
£375
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