{{distinguish|Reginald Friend Hannam Henderson}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Admiral | name = Sir Reginald Henderson | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB}} | image = | caption = | birth_name = Reginald Guy Hannam Henderson | birth_date = 1 September 1881<ref>{{cite web |title=Catalogue description: Henderson, Reginald Guy Hannam |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8115862 |website=The National Archives' catalogue |publisher=The National Archives (UK) |accessdate=15 May 2019}}</ref> | death_date = {{dda|2 May 1939|1 September 1881|df=y}} | burial_label = | burial_place = | birth_place = Falmouth, Cornwall, England | death_place = Haslar, Hampshire | burial_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> | nickname = | allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}} | branch = {{navy|United Kingdom}} | service_years = | rank = Admiral | unit = | commands = {{HMS|Furious|47|6}} | battles = World War I | awards = Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath | relations = | other_work = }} Admiral '''Sir Reginald Guy Hannam Henderson''', GCB<ref>[http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U211089, accessed 18 Feb 2012 ''Who was Who'']</ref> (1 September 1881 – 2 May 1939) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy.<ref name="times">{{cite news |title= Obituary: Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson |work=The Times |date=3 May 1939 |page=20 }}</ref>
==Early life and education==
Henderson was born into a naval family in Falmouth, Cornwall, the son of Commander John Hannam Henderson and Betsy Ann May. He was the nephew of Admiral Sir Reginald Friend Hannam Henderson and Admiral Sir William Hannam Henderson. He had one brother, Lt.-Col. Henry May Henderson, who was killed in action in the First World War.<ref name="times"/><ref>{{CWGC|id=186321|name=Henderson, Henry May |access-date=15 May 2019|mode=cs2}}</ref>
He entered {{HMS|Britannia|1820|6}} as a naval cadet in 1895.<ref name="times"/>
==Naval career== Henderson was appointed an acting sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy in November 1900, confirmed as such in 1902,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27432|page=3089|date=9 May 1902}}</ref> and posted to {{HMS|Syren|1900|6}} in April that year.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=24 April 1902 |page=11 |issue=36750}}</ref> He was promoted to lieutenant on 15 May 1902,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=27491 |page=7013 |date=4 November 1902}}</ref> and in November that year was posted to the battleship HMS ''Venerable'', on her first commission, to the Mediterranean Fleet.<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence|date=28 October 1902 |page=9 |issue=36910}}</ref> He took part in the Naval Mission to Greece in 1913.<ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/HENDERSON4.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives]</ref> He served in World War I as Commander (executive officer) of the battleship {{HMS|Erin}} in 1914<ref name=lh/> and took part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.<ref>[http://www.naval-history.net/WW1Battle1605Jutland4.htm Battle of Jutland]</ref>
In 1917, as a commander involved in anti-submarine warfare, he quietly opposed the Admiralty's official position that the volume of merchant shipping was too great to be protected by warships. Henderson demonstrated that the vast majority of the 2,500 ships completing voyages each week were in fact coastal voyages, and only between 120 and 140 ocean-going. Hankey's biographer Stephen Roskill suggested that Henderson's contribution to the introduction of convoys (in particular to Hankey's memorandum of February 1917) was not acknowledged on paper at the time in order to avoid imperilling the younger officer's career.<ref name="Grigg 2002, p50-1">Grigg 2002, p50-1</ref>
After the War he became Chief Staff Officer to the Commander-in-Chief, China Station and then, in 1923, joined the staff of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.<ref name=lh/>
Henderson later promoted the Fleet Air Arm and the construction of aircraft carriers.<ref name="Grigg 2002, p50-1"/> He was given command of the aircraft carrier {{HMS|Furious|47|6}} in 1926 and became Naval Aide-de-Camp to King George V in 1928.<ref name=lh/> He was appointed Rear Admiral commanding aircraft carriers in 1931 and Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy in 1934.<ref name=lh/> As such he played a significant role in all of the major warship procurements for the Royal Navy in the rearmament period running up to the Second World War, in particular the new aircraft carrier, escort and cruiser forces.<ref>Brown, D. K. 'Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Development 1923-1945', 2000, p239.</ref> He was earmarked for higher command until his early death.<ref>{{cite AV media | people = Clarke, Alexander | url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtzzU-Jgdcc | title = Aircraft Carriers the Debate | date = 12 May 2020}}</ref>
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) following the First World War and knighted in the order (KCB) in 1936. He was promoted to full admiral in January 1939, but fell ill and was forced to retire in March 1939. In April 1939, he was promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB), which, owing to his illness, was accepted by his wife on his behalf at Buckingham Palace.<ref name="times"/>
==Personal life== In 1911, he married Islay Edith Campbell Campbell. They had three sons, two surviving to adulthood.<ref>[http://markhenderson.me.uk/wordpress/2008/12/page/2/ ''The Chronicles of Mark Henderson'']</ref><ref name="times"/>
He died in May at the Royal Naval Hospital in Haslar, Portsmouth, aged 57.<ref name="times"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Grigg, John. ''Lloyd George: War Leader, 1916–1918'' Allen Lane, London 2002 {{ISBN|0-713-99343-X}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box | title=Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy | before=Sir Charles Forbes | after=Sir Bruce Fraser | years=1934–1939}} {{end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Reginald}} Category:1881 births Category:1939 deaths Category:Academics of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich Category:Military personnel from Cornwall Category:Royal Navy officers of World War I Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Category:Lords of the Admiralty Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel