British Admiral, Politician, Writer. He was educated at a preparatory school at Margate, Kent and began his Royal Navy training aboard HMS Britannia in 1884. In 1887 he joined his first ship, HMS Raleigh, based in South Africa, and in 1890 transferred to HMS Turquoise to take part in anti slavery missions. He then returned briefly to England and worked aboard the royal yacht HMY Victoria and Albert, meeting Queen Victoria before leaving for a four year posting to South America. On his return in 1896 he was given his first command, the destroyer HMS Opossum. He was soon posted to China in command of HMS Hart and later HMS Fame. In 1899 he rescued some soldiers who were surrounded by Chinese forces, going ashore and leading the charge which freed the men. In 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion, he led a mission to capture four Chinese destroyers, moored near the forts at Taku. This was achieved without British casualties, and he also captured the dry dock, before taking the captured ships to Tongku. He then led a landing party of 32 men in the destruction of the fort at Hsi-Cheng. Later that year he joined the advance on Peking as Aid-de-Camp to General Sir Arthur Gasalee, and was the first man over the city walls, planting a Union Flag on the top. His bravery earned him promotion to the rank of Commander. He then returned to England where he was appointed to the intelligence section of the Admiralty and became a friend of Winston Churchill. In 1910 he was made Inspecting Captain of Submarines, with responsibility for sixty-one vessels. He held this post at the outbreak of World War I, and his submarines took part in the Battle of Heligoland Blight. In 1915 he was sent to the Dardinelles, where he took charge of a minesweeping operation to clear the way for allied war ships. He was made Rear Admiral in 1917, before taking over command of The Dover Patrol a year later. Five enemy U-Boats were sunk in the first month of his command. He then led the famous 1918 raids against German Submarines at Zeebrugge and Ostend, and was rewarded for his service by being made a baronet. He was made Admiral of the Fleet in 1930, publishing his memoirs soon afterwards. He entered politics in 1934, when he was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for North Portsmouth. While in Parliament he fought against disarmament and campaigned to have the Fleet Air Arm put back under the control of the Navy after years of neglect under the Royal Air Force. He also supported Churchill's opposition to the Munich agreement with Hitler in 1938, and remained in Parliament until being made Baron Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover in 1943. On the outbreak of World War II his friendship with the King of Belgium gave him an important negotiating role in the planning of Belgian and Allied defences against a German invasion of France through Belgium. In April 1940 he presented Churchill with his plans for the capture of Trondheim, which he considered the key to victory in Norway. His plan was not followed fully and ended in failure. From 1940 until 1941 he was the director of Combined Operations, the Commandos; he then entered the House of Lords as Baron Keyes in 1943. In the last years of the war the government sent him on a good will tour of The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. On his return he contracted pneumonia and died age 73 at Buckingham, England. He was given the honour of a funeral in Westminster Abbey, and at his own request was buried with the casualties of the Zeebrugge campaign. His son, Lt.-Col. Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes, Victoria Cross, M.C., Croix de Guerre, also died in service in WWII.