Rosslyn Wemyss

The naval career of Scotsman Rosslyn Erskine Wemyss began in 1877, when he joined the navy as a 13-year-old.

In February 1915, Rear Admiral Wemyss was appointed governor of Lemnos to prepare Mudros as an advanced base for operations against the Ottomans in the Gallipoli campaign. He commanded the logistically complex landings and evacuations during the campaign.

Following the Gallipoli campaign, he was stationed in Port Said for 18 months, supporting the Arab ousting of Ottoman forces from ports on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. Vice Admiral Wemyss, as he had become, returned to the United Kingdom in 1917, where he was appointed deputy first sea lord and then first sea lord, or admiral of the fleet.

Wemyss was among France’s delegation in the train carriage at Compiègne forest, France, in November 1918 at which an armistice was struck with the German delegation, silencing the guns of war. Soon after, he represented British naval interests at the Paris Peace Conference, at which the terms of Treaty of Versailles were agreed upon.

He died in Cannes, France, in 1933.