Book Review: Salt Horse

Author

Kingsley Perry

Subjects

Biographies and personal histories, History - WW1, Book reviews, Biographies

Tags

Mutiny

RAN Ships

HMAS Brisbane I, HMAS Encounter I, HMAS Australia I, HMAS Melbourne I

Publication

June 2024 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

Salt Horse – Memoir of a Maverick Admiral, Claude Lionel Cumberlege. Published by Whittles Publishing Ltd, Dunbeath, Caithness KW6 6EG, Scotland.

Admiral Claude Cumberlege RN wrote his memoirs in 1936-38, but they were not published. However, they have recently been edited by Robin Knight in Scotland, and this is the result. It covers his life in the Royal Navy, beginning with his entry to the Royal Naval College Dartmouth in 1889 at the age of 12, and his service up to and including the First World War. It then continues to cover his leaving the Navy in 1922 and then ‘living on his wits’ until his death in 1963. During the latter period he lived mainly in France and Spain, mostly cruising in two quite large sailing ships. Readers of the Naval Historical Review may find most interest in his secondment to the Royal Australian Navy between 1913 and 1921.

Needless to say, his service as a naval officer was at a time when Britain ruled the waves, and groups of its warships seemed to be everywhere. He made the most of it. His memoirs paint a picture of a colourful, energetic, ambitious, yet likeable person. His service before and during WWI was extensive (including many commands and adventures and significant early postings at Gibraltar and at Malta) and is comprehensively covered in an easy-to-read style, and gives a good impression of life in the Navy at that time.

His highlight was his service with the RAN in 1913-1921, a secondment that he had requested. He commanded a flotilla of destroyers including his own HMAS Warrego. He took part in the capture of Rabaul (which he describes in interesting detail) and his search for the submarine AE1 which was lost at the time. He also led the clearing of German forces up the Sepik River in New Guinea. In 1916 he was appointed in command of the cruiser HMAS Encounter, and then the new cruiser HMAS Brisbane. Then in 1919 he was Flag Captain of the battlecruiser HMAS Australia when she was returning to Australia after the war, and in 1920 he was Flag Captain in the light cruiser HMAS Melbourne.

It was while in Australia that the mutiny occurred at Fremantle. He gives a first-hand account of what happened (including the court-martial) and his own involvement. The editor (in one of many of his useful footnotes throughout the book) acknowledges the account of this mutiny in the book ‘Mutineers’ by Robert Hadley, which was reviewed in the June 2021 edition of this magazine.

There are many interesting stories and anecdotes in this book, covering some 60 years – perhaps too many to make it easy to select just a few as examples. But they are all written in a colourful and engaging style. His family life, interesting too, albeit a little quirky, is covered. The memoir is enhanced by good editing and additional material, together with a generous supply of pictures of ships, people and places. Anyone with an interest in naval and social history in the years before and in WWI, especially from an Australian perspective, will find it a very good read. Enquiries about purchase can be made via whittlespublishing.com.

          Reviewed by Kingsley Perry

 By Editor

Until recent times our most northerly correspondent in the United Kingdom came from Northumberland but recently we were pleased to receive a book for review, Salt Horse, from a small publishing house at Dunbeath not far from the most northern extent of mainland Scotland.

Dunbeath has a magnificent castle set on a clifftop and surrounded by 28,500 acres of moorland which, together with 20 houses and cottages, is for sale at £25 million. One-time Laird of this estate was a well-known naval officer Admiral Sir Edwyn Alexander-Sinclair who pre-war had served as C-in-C of the China Station and The Nore.

A copy of this book plus planning a visit to this dramatic part of the kingdom might appeal to some of our more adventurous readers.