Background
Royal Ingersoll was born on June 20, 1883 in Washington, United States.
Royal Ingersoll was born on June 20, 1883 in Washington, United States.
Ingersoll graduated from the Naval Academy in 1905 and reported as a passed midshipman to the battleship Missouri (BB-11). In August of that year, he was one of the young officers assigned special temporary duty to attend the Russian-Japanese Peace Conference, held at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, in Kittery, Maine.
In August of that year, he was one of the young officers assigned special temporary duty to attend the Russian-Japanese Peace Conference, held at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He performed the required two years of sea duty on the battleship USS Missouri, the gunboat USS Marietta, the transport ship USS Hancock, and the battleship USS Connecticut before being commissioned an ensign in January 1907. From 1911 to 1913 he was an instructor of Seamanship and International Law, and later of English, at the US Naval Academy, after which he was assigned to the Asiatic Squadron, serving on the armored cruiser USS Saratoga, the flagship of the US Asiatic Fleet. He served briefly as her 1st Lieutenant, and then he became the Aide and Flag Lieutenant to the Chief-of-Staff of the Asiatic Fleet's Commander. He returned to the US and in June 1916, he was assigned as Assistant for Communications, and Communication Officer, in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington DC, and promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander the following August. After the end of World War I in November 1918, he joined Admiral William S. Benson, then Chief of Naval Operations, concerning the establishment of a communication office for that commission.
In February 1919 he returned home on the ocean liner SS George Washington with the Presidential party, handling messages for President Woodrow Wilson on the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The following month he again joined the battleship USS Connecticut, serving this time as the Executive Officer until September 1920, then transferring to the battleship USS Arizona. In June 1921 he was promoted to the rank of commander and he reported to the Navy Department in Washington DC for a tour of duty in the Office of Naval Intelligence, and in March 1924, he assumed command of the patrol ship USS Nokomis, that was fitted out as a survey ship and cruised in the Cuban-Haitian waters, mapping the north coast of Cuba. In June 1927 he was promoted to the rank of captain and he completed the Senior Course at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, serving the following year as a member of their staff. In June 1928, he reported for duty as Assistant Chief of Staff to Commander Battle Fleet, on the battleship USS California, and continued similar duty on the Staff when Admiral William V. Pratt became Commander in Chief, US Fleet, with his flagship the battleship USS Texas. In August 1930 he returned to Washington DC and was assigned to the Division of Fleet Training, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department. In May 1933 he became the commander of the heavy cruiser USS Augusta and the following November he was transferred to the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California, to fit out the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco. He then commanded this cruiser from her commissioning in February 1934 until June 1935.
He returned to Washington DC and served for three years in the Chief of Naval Operations, as Director of the War Plans Division, which included his assignment in June 1936 as Technical Assistant to the American Delegation at the London Naval Conference, London, England. He went to London again in December 1937, concerned with requirements growing out of the London Naval Treaty limiting naval armament. In May 1938 he was promoted to the rank of rear admiral and the following July he became commander of Cruiser Division Six of the Scouting Force, his flag on the cruiser USS Minneapolis. Two years later, he returned to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Washington DC, as Assistant to the Chief, and in January 1942 he was promoted to the rank of vice admiral and became Commander in Chief, US Atlantic Fleet, with the USS Augusta as his flagship, and in July 1942 he was promoted to the rank of admiral. In November 1944 he became Commander Western Sea Frontier at San Francisco and was given the status of a Deputy Commander in Chief, US Fleet, and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations. He served in this position until April 1946 and retired in August 1946, with 41 years of continuous military service.
Ingersoll died on 20 May 1976.
Ingersoll was married in 1910 to Louise Van Harlingen of Atlanta, Georgia and had two children.