Reginald Bacon - Technical Ability and Character

Technical Ability and Character

Bacon was well-qualified for his new posting, having served in the torpedo branch of the navy throughout the 1890s. He had spent several years on the staff of HMS Vernon, Britain's main torpedo school, and his character was dominated by a pronounced flair for things mechanical. He developed one of the first practical modern periscopes and produced an efficient submarine compass. Later in his career Bacon made a significant contribution to the design of the revolutionary all-big-gun battleship Dreadnought, developed siege guns for the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and mastered the technical complexities required to implement his proposal for a North Sea Mine Barrage. After his retirement, he settled down to write books with titles such as A Simple Guide to Wireless for All Whose Knowledge of Electricity is Childlike.

Few of Bacon's contemporaries denied his brilliance, but many felt that he was also blinkered, arrogant, slow to acknowledge his mistakes, and a poor leader of men. Historian Mike Dash observes that while "there is no doubt that mastery of the technology with which he dealt reinforced the independence of the submarine branch, he was a remote and stubborn centraliser who rarely admitted he needed help from anybody".

Another trait which became increasingly significant in Bacon's naval career was "the unfortunate knack which developed of polarising the opinions others held of him." He was not, like his nemesis Roger Keyes, who succeeded him as both ICS and commander of the Dover Patrol, a friend to all men. To Maurice Hankey, during the war, Bacon was "the one officer with offensive spirit"; to the notoriously offensive-minded Reginald Tyrwhitt, commander of the Harwich Force, he was a worse enemy than the Germans, unwilling to take risks and "our bugbear... the Streaky One has obsessed everyone at the Admiralty and does exactly what he pleases with them... You will understand me when I say he is not a white man."