Algernon Walker-Heneage-Vivian

Admiral Algernon Walker-Heneage-Vivian (4 February 1871 – 26 February 1952) was a British Navy admiral.

He was born the son of Major Clement Walker Heneage, V.C., of Compton Bassett, Wiltshire and educated in part at Stubbington House School in Hampshire, known as the "cradle of the Navy".



Career
He joined the Royal Navy in 1886, as a midshipman on the battleship HMS Triumph commanded by Sir Algernon Heneage, a distant relative. He afterwards served on HMS Arthur in the Pacific and was promoted to Commander in 1900. He thereafter served all in many parts of the world, including Ladysmith, South Africa, when he was part of the contingent sent to defend the town during the Boer war. In 1907 he was promoted captain in command of the minelayer HMS Hyacinth, and in 1908 was given command of the First Squadron of Minelayers.

In World War I, in command of the battleship HMS Albion, he took her on a secret mission to collect gold bullion from South Africa and was afterwards part of the naval support at the Gallipoli landings. In 1915-16 he was commodore commanding small vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, including 160 minesweepers and in 1916-17 was in charge of the allied barrage across the Strait of Otranto.

He became Senior British Naval Officer in Italy and was promoted to rear-admiral in 1918 and appointed an A.D.C. to the King in 1917-18. He retired from active service in 1920 and was promoted in retirement to vice-admiral on 8 October 1923 and admiral on 1 August 1927.

He was invested as a member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1904 and a Companion of the Bath (CB) in the 1916 New Year Honours. On 25 April 1922 he was made a Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy by the King of Italy.

In retirement he moved into Parc le Breos on the Gower peninsula near Bishopton, Swansea which he inherited from the Vivian family and afterwards to Clyne Castle, Blackpill, Swansea, which was also inherited from the Vivians. At that time (in 1921) he added the Vivian surname to his own. He served as a Justice of the Peace and a Deputy Lieutenant of Glamorganshire and was pricked High Sheriff of Glamorgan for 1926-27.



Private life
He died at Clyne Castle in 1952. He had married twice;firstly in 1912 Helen Mary, daughter of Capt. Ernest de Vismes du Boulay, with whom he had three daughters and divorced in 1931 and secondly, in Paddington in 1931, Beryl Stanley.