Background
Rosslyn Wemyss was born in London on April 12, 1864, to James Hay Erskine Wemyss of Wemyss Castle, Fife.
Rosslyn Wemyss was born in London on April 12, 1864, to James Hay Erskine Wemyss of Wemyss Castle, Fife.
Wemyss entered the navy in 1877 along with his third cousin, the Royal Prince George (later King George V). Duty in the Mediterranean under Lord Charles Beresford and on board the royal yacht Osborne brought out his charm, tact, and abundant common sense.
In 1898 in the grade of commander he was in charge of the Niobe on special assignment at the Cape Colony during the Boer War; three years later Wemyss joined the duke of York on a tour of the Dominions and received promotion to the grade of captain. In August 1903, Admiral John A. "Jacky" Fisher selected Wemyss as first commander of the new cadets' college at Osborne; thereafter came service on several warships as well as the post of naval equerry to King George V in 1910. Two years later Wemyss was promoted to the grade of rear admiral.
The outbreak of war in August 1914 found him in command of the twelfth cruiser squadron with his flag on the Charybdis with instructions to act in concert with the French for the western patrol of the English Channel, and to protect the transport of the British Expeditionary Force to France. In September Wemyss escorted the first contingent of Canadian troops to England. In February 1915, his steady character and cool composure made him the right man to govern Lemnos Island and to head the naval station at Mudros, which was to serve as base for the proposed naval assault upon the Dardanelles. On his arrival Wemyss found no water supply, no native labor, and no staff. When Admiral Sackville Carden became ill in March 1915 in the wake of the first round of failure at the Straits, Rosy Wemyss, as he was called, unselfishly recommended that a junior officer, Rear Admiral John De Robeca, succeed Carden, remaining at Mudros himself.
In April 1916, Wemyss commanded the first naval squadron in the Helles section with his flag on the Euryalus; in November, during De Robeck's absence, he was appointed acting vice admiral. In this capacity Wemyss supported Commodore Roger Keyes' proposal for yet another naval attempt to force the Straits, and Wemyss badgered the first lord of the Admiralty, Arthur James Balfour, as well as General Charles Monro to this end, but to no avail. Moreover, Wemyss opposed the evacuation of Allied troops from Gallipoli. Though disgruntled, he nevertheless threw himself into the evacuation with vigor at Suvla and Anzac.
Wemyss was next appointed commander in chief, East Indies and Egypt Station in January 1916, and supported General Edmund Allenby's advance into Palestine in August. That same year he was promoted to the grade of vice admiral. In 1917 Wemyss accepted the newly created office of deputy sea lord, being entrusted by Sir Eric Geddes with reorganizing and expanding the war staff created in 1912 by Winston Churchill. Admiral John Jellicoe's opposition to this proposal to create a "general staff of the navy" as well as the sea commander's personal differences with both Geddes and the prime minister, David Lloyd George, resulted in Jellicoe's abrupt dismissal by Geddes near the end of that year and his replacement as first sea lord by Rosy Wemyss.
This turn of events was not received well in the service. Jellicoe complained that he had been "kicked out" for no reason at all, and many senior officers regarded Wemyss as a "Court sailor." On the other hand, Wemyss worked well throughout 1918 with Geddes and helped to plan the daring Zeebrugge operation in April 1918. By August he supported the American plan for a northern mine barrage of the waters between Scotland and Norway. Wemyss represented the Allied navies at the German capitulation at Compiegne on November 11, 1918, and Britain at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. That year he was promoted to the grade of admiral.
After the war Wemyss was deeply offended by repeated calls for his replacement by Admiral David Beatty and by being overlooked from the list of peerages and money awards to the principal war leaders; he left office in November 1919. Thereafter he was specially promoted admiral of the fleet and raised to the peerage as Baron Wester Wemyss. He died at Cannes on May 24, 1933, disappointed that he was never offered employment as a governor or as an ambassador. Arthur Marder states that Wemyss served as first sea lord with distinction and that he conducted himself as a "broad-minded, shrewd man of the world."
On 21 December 1903 Wemyss married Victoria Morier, daughter of Sir Robert Morier; they had one daughter, Alice Elizabeth Millicent Erskine-Wemyss.