Keyes, Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron

Keyes, Roger John Brownlow Keyes, 1st Baron kēz [key], 1872–1945, British admiral. In World War I he achieved his greatest fame as commander of the Dover patrol when he raided Zeebrugge and Ostend in Belgium (Apr. 23, 1918) to cripple the last German submarine campaign in the English Channel. He became admiral of the fleet in 1930 and retired in 1935, but he was recalled to active duty in World War II. As director of combined operations (1940–41) he influenced the early developments in amphibious warfare. From 1934 to 1943 he served as a Conservative member of Parliament, and in 1943 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Keyes of Zeebrugge and Dover.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: British and Irish History: Biographies