William Donald Raymond Hargreaves

Commander (retired) William Donald Raymond Hargreaves, (8 December, 1895 – ) served in the Royal Naval Reserve and the Royal Navy.

Life & Career

Hargreaves was appointed to the third class protected cruiser Sapphire as a Midshipman R.N.R. on 5 September 1914. He served in her through 6 August, 1916, having transferred into the Royal Navy on 26 July.

He was appointed to the battlecruiser Renown on 25 September 1916 and served in her until being sent to Vernon for a Torpedo Control Course on 30 July 1917. When this concluded, he was appointed to the patrol boat P59 on 5 August. This lasted only about six weeks, but his next appointment is illegible.

Hargreaves was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 22 March, 1918.

In April, 1920, he was trained in submarines at Dolphin. On 28 July, he was appointed to serve in submarines attached to Lucia, but this was altered to Ambrose mere days later. In October 1920, he was placed in L 1 and then in L 9 on 20 June, 1921. By January, 1922 he was the boat's third officer.

After qualifying in gunnery for submarines, Hargreaves was sent to the monitor submarines M 2 and M 3 in mid 1922. Thereafter, he served in H 44 and L 54.

Hargreaves was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander on 22 March, 1926 while in command of H 50. However, a Court of Enquiry found him at fault for endangering the boat on 7 June, 1926 and he was relieved of command and reverted to general (rather than submarine) service.

In 1938, Hargreaves studied photography and was soon Fleet Photographic Officer aboard Warspite, vice Slack.

World War II

Hargreaves was placed on the Retired List at the rank of Commander on 8 December, 1940.

See Also

• Service Records

Bibliography

Naval Appointments
Preceded by Archibald G. Buchanan	Captain of H.M.S. H 50 14 Aug, 1925	Succeeded by Claude Plumer