{{Infobox military person | name = Joseph Wallace Oman | image = LCDR_J.WallaceOman_1905.jpg | caption = J. Wallace Oman USN LCDR 1905 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1864|08|15}} | death_date = {{Death date and age|1941|07|01|1864|08|15}} | burial_label = Place of burial | burial_place = [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]], [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] | birth_place = [[Lightstreet, Pennsylvania]], U.S. | death_place = [[London]], England | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = Wallace | allegiance = {{USA}} | branch = [[File:United States Department of the Navy Seal.svg|25px]] [[United States Navy]] | service_years = 1886&ndash;1921 | rank = [[Rear admiral (United States)|Rear Admiral]] | unit = | commands = {{USS|Mariveles|1886|6}}<br/>{{USS|Tacoma|}}<br/>{{USS|Des Moines|}}<br/>{{USS|Maine|}}<br/>{{USS|North Carolina|}}<br/>{{USS|Georgia|}}<br/>{{USS|Cleveland|}}<br/>{{USS|Manning|}}<br/>[[SS Leviathan|USS ''Leviathan'']]<br/>Supervisor, [[New York Harbor|Harbor of New York]]<ref name=navyobit/> | battles = [[Spanish–American War]]<br/>[[Philippine–American War]]<br/>[[World War I]] | awards = [[Navy Cross (United States)|Navy Cross]] | relations = [[Charles Malden Oman]] (brother) | other_work = }} '''Joseph Wallace Oman''' (1864&ndash;1941) was a [[Rear admiral (United States)|rear admiral]] in the [[United States Navy]] and veteran of the [[Spanish–American War]], the [[Philippine–American War]], and [[World War I]]. He is a recipient of the [[Navy Cross (United States)|Navy Cross]]. He was also the [[Governor of the United States Virgin Islands]] from 1919 to 1921.

==Biography== Oman was born in [[Lightstreet, Pennsylvania]], 15 August 1864, the son of Henry Freas Oman and Mary Jane Shannon. He was brother to [[Charles Malden Oman]].<ref name=nytobitjwo>{{cite news |title=Admiral J. W. Oman; He Won Navy Cross |work=[[New York Times]] |date=3 July 1941 |page=19}}</ref><ref name=navyobit>{{cite book |last1=Navy Department |title=Death of Rear Admiral Joseph Wallace Oman, U.S. Navy, Retired [Press Release] |date=2 July 1941 |publisher=United States Navy Department of the Navy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5B2Cv8bx_jwC&q=death%20of%20rear%20adminral%20joseph%20wallace%20oman |access-date=26 December 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1908 he married at St. Agnes Chapel in New York City, Virginia Center Morse, daughter of William Henry Morse and Sarah Virginia Center, and granddaughter of Alexander Jenkins Center, Vice President of the Panama Railway. Joseph Wallace and Virginia had four children: Virginia (died in infancy); Joseph Wallace Jr, William Morse Oman, and Virginia Morse Oman. He died 1 July 1941 in London, England. He and his wife are buried in [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]], Cambridge, MA.

He entered the [[United States Naval Academy]] in 1882, having been appointed a naval cadet by congressman [[Robert Klotz]],<ref name=navyobit/> and graduated 4th in his class of 1886. He was commissioned as an [[Ensign (rank)|ensign]] in 1888 and promoted to [[Lieutenant, Junior Grade]] in 1896. During the Philippine–American War, he commanded the gunboat {{USS|Mariveles|1886|2}}. He was promoted to Lt. Commander in 1905, and circumnavigated in the 1907-09 [[Great White Fleet]] as navigator and executive officer of the battleship [[USS Rhode Island (BB-17)|USS Rhode Island]]. In 1909, he was promoted to [[commander]]. He was [[Captain (United States)|captain]] of the [[Boston Navy Yard]] in 1913. In 1916-1917 he served as Supervisor, [[New York Harbor|Harbor of New York]].<ref name=navyobit/>

In July 1917, Captain Oman was given command of the former German ship, the SS ''Vaterland'', now claimed by the [[United States]]. The ''Vaterland'' was in 1914 the largest passenger ship in the world, and by the war it was still one of the largest. Two months later, the ship was re-christened as the [[SS Leviathan|USS ''Leviathan'']] and was used as a troop transport. During the war, USS Leviathan successfully avoided submarine patrols, despite the vessel's huge size, and managed to deliver nearly 120,000 American troops before the end of the war. Oman was awarded the [[Navy Cross]] and promoted to [[Rear admiral (United States)|rear admiral]] in 1918. In 1918 he served as Commander of the Atlantic Fleet Cruiser Force and Commandant of the [[United States naval districts|Second Naval District]] in Newport RI. During the [[Spanish flu|1918-20 flu pandemic]], he created "Camp Admiral Oman<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carroll |first=Charles H. |date=1918-12-14 |title=THE PROPHYLAXIS OF INFLUENZA |url=http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jama.1918.02600500065022 |journal=JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association |language=en |volume=71 |issue=24 |pages=2015 |doi=10.1001/jama.1918.02600500065022 |issn=0098-7484}}</ref>" on the Vanderbilt Farm outside Newport to safely quarantine a thousand sailors in open air tents.

{{Listen | type = music | filename = The_Governor's_Own_March_-_Brass_Quartet_-_United_States_Navy_Band.opus | title = "The Governor's Own" | description = }} From 1919 until his retirement from the navy in 1921, Oman served as the military [[governor of the United States Virgin Islands]]. He is credited as having one of the most efficiently running of the early colonial governments and the island prospered, largely thanks to exports of [[rum]]. [[Alton Adams]], the first black bandmaster of the U.S. Navy, wrote that his march, ''[[The Governor's Own]]'' (1921), had been inspired by Oman.<ref name=adams08>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Alton A. |title=The Memoirs of Alton Augustus Adams, Sr.: First Black Bandmaster of the United States Navy |date=2008 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley, CA |isbn=978-0-520-25131-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFElDQAAQBAJ&q=admiral%20Oman |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|111}} {{Blockquote |Oman was... liked by all who met him [and] had recently done me a singular service by persuading the Navy Department to waive my sea duty requirement and grant me permanent appointment as bandmaster. I left Government House with a wonderful feeling of gratitude, and as I walked down the hill, fragments of a march came to my mind and persisted. The ideas remained with me all afternoon, taking on shape and melody. Oman was a short, jaunty, snappy sort of fellow, and that provided me with my motif. So out of a combination of gratitude, respect, and sympathy, I went home and that night wrote him a march... it became through custom the march of all the islands' governors... It won considerable praise in the United States from bandsmen like [[Herbert L. Clarke|Herbert Clarke]] and [[John Philip Sousa]], and for several years it was used as the official march for commencement exercises at [[Howard University]].<ref name=adams08/>{{rp|111}} }}

Following his retirement, Oman eventually moved to [[London]], where he died in 1941.

Oman's brother Charles Malden Oman also served in the US Navy, also being a Rear Admiral at the time of Oman's death, and serving as commander of the [[Walter Reed National Military Medical Center#History as the National Naval Medical Center (1940–2011)|Naval Medical Center]] in Washington, D.C.<ref name=nytobitjwo/><ref name=navyobit/>

==See also== {{Portal|Biography}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== * ADMIRAL J. W. OMAN. Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES. New York Times. New York, N.Y.: Jul 3, 1941. pg. 19, 1 pgs

==External links== *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrJQjz1WY84 ''The Governor's Own''] (1921) ([[YouTube]]), written by [[Alton Adams]] and dedicated to Oman *[https://bandmusicpdf.org/governorsown/ ''The Governor's Own''] sheet music

{{s-start}} {{succession box|title=[[Governor of the United States Virgin Islands|Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands]]|before=[[James Harrison Oliver]]|after=[[Sumner Ely Wetmore Kittelle]]|years=1919&ndash;1921}} {{s-end}} {{Governors of the U.S. Virgin Islands}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oman, Joseph Wallace}} [[Category:1864 births]] [[Category:1941 deaths]] [[Category:Governors of the United States Virgin Islands]] [[Category:United States Navy World War I admirals]] [[Category:Recipients of the Navy Cross (United States)]] [[Category:People from Columbia County, Pennsylvania]] [[Category:United States Navy admirals]] [[Category:Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery]] [[Category:United States Naval Academy alumni]] [[Category:Military personnel from Pennsylvania]]