Francis Cromie was the son of Captain F C Cromie (Hampshire Regiment) – Consul General, Dakar, and Mrs. Lennard (formerly Cromie).  He was born in Duncannon Fort, South Wexford, Ireland, on 30 January 1882.  He was educated at Haverfordwest Grammar School before joining the Royal Navy in 1897.  

In 1898 he was appointed to the Battleship HMS BARFLEUR on the China Station.  He was promoted to Midshipman and was awarded a ‘Mention in Dispatches’ – ‘for services at Tientsin in June 1900’ during the Boxer Rebellion.

As a Sub Lieutenant he achieved four ‘Firsts’ in his Lieutenants Examinations and was promoted Lieutenant in 1903 and appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS THAMES ‘for Submarines’.  By December 1904 he had been re-appointed to THAMES ‘for Command of Submarine Boats’.  

In 1905, he was in command of HMS A3 at sea off Spithead when one of the crew (Able Seaman Thompson) was lost over the side. Lieutenant Cromie attempted to save Thompson but was forced to let him go and Thompson was drowned. For his efforts to save Thompson he was awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Bronze Award.

He left A3 in July 1906 and returned to the Surface Fleet for his ‘Big Ship’ time in the Battleship HMS DOMINION. He then served in the Light Cruisers HMS ATTENTIVE and TOPAZE.

His next Submarine appointment was command of HMS C5 in 1908 followed, in 2010, by command of the Depot Ship HMS ONYX at Devonport and of ‘Submarine Section VI’.

He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1911 and commanded HMS D1 followed by HMS E4, completing at Vickers at Barrow.  In 1913 he was appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS ROSARIO at Hong Kong ‘in Command and for Command of the Hong Kong Submarine Flotilla’.

He returned from Hong Kong in early 1915 and took command of HMS E19 completing at Vickers.  In September 1915 E19 left Newcastle for the Baltic and in October 1915 he was successful in stopping and sinking five merchant vessels carrying iron ore from Sweden to Germany as well as driving two others ashore and capturing one as a prize.  In November 1915 he sank the German Cruiser SMS Undine and a timber carrying ship, and in December 1915 he sank another ore carrier.

He was promoted to Commander in December 1915 In command of the Baltic Flotilla.  He was awarded the DSO – see London Gazette dated 31 May 1916 ‘in recognition of his services in command of a British submarine in the Baltic’.

E19 operated in the Baltic until events after the Russian Revolution made thing too difficult. As Francis Cromie was the Senior Submarine Officer of the Baltic Flotilla he was required to remain behind in Russia when all the submarine crews returned home.

He was appointed as the Naval Attaché in Petrograd in the rank of Captain and remained at the Embassy even after the Ambassador had returned home. On 31 August 1918 he was shot by Bolshevik intruders during a confrontation at the Embassy. He was buried in the Smolensky Cemetery in Petrograd (now St Petersburg).

He was appointed as a Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Bath ‘in recognition of his distinguished service in the Allied cause in Russia and of the devotion to duty which he displayed in remaining at his post as British Naval Attaché in Russia when the British Embassy was withdrawn. This devotion to duty cost him his life’ – see London Gazette dated 24 September 1918. This was, unusually a posthumous appointment – the only one known.

In addition to the awards and decorations mentioned above Francis Cromie was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir (4th Class) with Swords (Russia) – see London Gazette dated 11th July 1916, the St. George’s Cross, 4th Class (Russia), the Order of St. Anne, 2nd Class (Russia) and was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (France).

Francis was the husband of Mrs Cromie of Clapham Common, London. He is commemorated on the Archangel Memorial in the Russian Federation.