Harold Granville Grenfell

From a contemporary newspaper cutting (source unknown):

CMDR HAROLD GRENFELL

Lord Strabolgi writes: -

The death, briefly reported in The Times, of Commander Harold Grenfell, RN, removes an unusual type of naval officer, who performed valuable services to his country in the 1914-18 war. Grenfell was Naval Attache at our Embassy in Petrograd, and I believe I am right in saying that only he and Colonel Knox, the Military Attache, were fluent Russian linguists. Grenfell, who had Socialist sympathies, was in touch with the popular movement in Russia, knew many of the revolutionary leaders, and gave early warning of the events of March, 1917. His Ambassador was sceptical, as were most of the embassy staff, but our Admiralty had early and valuable warning.

When the October Revolution broke out, discipline completely collapsed in the Baltic Fleet, many of the officers being murdered by the sailors, and nearly all the warships were immobilised while the Sailors' Committees quarrelled amongst themselves. The Germans, who were well informed, took advantage of this to mount a large-scale combined operation in the Gulf of Riga with the then capital as their objective. Grenfell, at the risk of his life, went on board of the Russian flagship, invited the leaders of the Sailors' Committee of the Fleet to meet him and haranged them, in Russian, to such effect that they accepted his advice to put to sea and engage the common enemy. Some success followed in the subsequent fighting, the German advance was considerably delayed, and valuable time gained. Grenfell's efforts were unknown to the general public for security reasons; but I submit that they deserve to be more widely known than in the unpublished files of the Admiralty War Staff.

END