Charles Kingsmill

Admiral Sir Charles Edmund Kingsmill, (7 July 1855 – 15 July 1935) was a Canadian-born naval officer and the first director of the Department of the Naval Service of Canada. After retiring from a career in the Royal Navy, he played a prominent role in the establishment of the Canadian Naval Service in 1910. Along with Rear-Admiral Walter Hose, he is considered the father of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Early life an education

Kingsmill was born at Guelph, Canada West (now Ontario) in 1855. He was the son of John Juchereau Kingsmill, Crown Attorney for Wellington County, and Ellen Diana Grange. He was educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto.

Royal Navy career

In 1870, at age 14, Kingsmill joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman. During his career in the Royal Navy, he commanded HM Ships (1890–1891), (1895), (1895–1898), (1900), (1900–1903), Resolution, Majestic (1905–1906), and .

Mildura served on the Australia Station in these years. During Kingsmill's command of the ship, she was part of the naval escort for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York (later King George V and Queen Mary) to New Zealand aboard the chartered Royal liner HMS Ophir during 1901. The following year, he was with (flagship) and , visiting Norfolk Island in July, Suva, Fiji in August, and Tonga in September.

Kingsmill was given command of the battleship Dominion after her launching in 1905. Dominion ran aground in Chaleur Bay on 16 or 19 He was appointed honorary aide-de-camp to His Excellency the Governor-General in 1909. At the behest of then prime minister Wilfrid Laurier, he accepted the post of director of the Marine Service in the Department of Marine and Fisheries under then Minister of Marine and Fisheries Louis-Philippe Brodeur. The appointment predetermined his eventual appointment as rear-admiral and director of the Naval Service of Canada upon the formation of The Canadian Naval Service on 4 May 1910. King George V designated Canada's naval forces as the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) on August 29, 1911.By 1914, at the beginning of World War I, the new navy's fleet consisted of two old cruisers and a collection of converted civilian and commercial vessels.

Kingsmill is buried in the Anglican cemetery in Portland, where an Ontario Heritage Trust plaque commemorates his contribution to Canadian naval history.

Family

Kingsmill and his wife, Constance, were prominent figures in Ottawa's social life. She was active in various causes, including as a supporter of birth control. They lived in a large stone house which they named "Ballybeg" on Crescent Road in Rockcliffe, which was designed for them during World War I by Montreal architect H. C. Stone. When the house was built, Rockcliffe was outside city limits, and raising chickens and cattle was permitted. Since 1970, the house has been occupied by Tunisia's ambassadors to Canada.

Kingsmill's cousin, Colonel Walter Bernard Kingsmill, the son of Admiral Kingsmill's uncle, Nicol Kingsmill, was head of the 10th Royal Grenadiers and led the 123rd Battalion on the front lines in France during the First World War.

Kingsmill's daughter Diana was an Olympic athlete and journalist, who married historian J. F. C. Wright.

Legacy

Kingsmill House is named for him. The junior officer quarters building at Venture NOTC, the Canadian Naval Officer Training Centre, is named after him.

Footnotes