Lieutenant Commander 

The Hon. Byron Plantagenet 

CARY

DSO

Royal Navy

Died On:
Aged:
16 September 1917

30

Byron Cary was born on 25 January 1887, the son of the Honourable Byron Plantaganet Cary, Viscount Falkland. He joined the Royal Navy in September 1901 and joined submarines as a Lieutenant in May 1909.

He joined HMS C30 as First Lieutenant in September 1909 and, in December 1911, was appointed to A11 in command. His next appointment was to command C10 in June 1914 and, in August 1916, he went to Canada to take command of H10 and bring the submarine back to the UK. Command of G9 followed in July 1916, with promotion to Lieutenant Commander in December 1916.

Cary was on patrol in the North Sea in G9 on 16 September 1917, when he apparently fired a torpedo at the M-Class destroyer HMS PASLEY, believing the destroyer to be a German U-boat. The torpedo did not explode, but HMS PASLEY then rammed G9, which sank. There was only one survivor, while Cary and the remainder of the crew were lost.

Byron Cary had been awarded the DSO ‘for Services in Submarines in Enemy Waters’, but this was not announced until November 1917 – after the loss of G9. Byron Cary is commemorated on the Portsmouth Naval War Memorial on Panel No. 24.

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