Admiral Owen Francis Gillett

Date of Brass:

1938

Place:

Halvergate

County:

Norfolk

Country:

Number:

Style:

Description

December 2025

Owen Francis Gillett was born 8 February 1863 in Flegg, Norfolk. His father, Rev. Edward Gillett of Shipmeadow, Suffolk, vicar of Runhall, Norfolk, the fourth son of Cyrus Gillett of Halvergate Hall, died when he was six. Cyrus Gillett’s great great grandfather John had purchased Halvergate Hall in 1705. The hall descended to his eldest son Robert, who had five brothers and three sisters. Robert had two sons and five daughters.

Owen’s mother Ellen Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of Captain George Edward Francis of Martham Grange, Norfolk, had married his father in 1862 and Owen was the eldest of four children. Both of his younger brothers were also given Francis as their second forename. Her mother, Anne Rising Francis had married her cousin George Edward Francis on 23 January 1824 in Kensington and thus retained her natal surname. The Francis family were successful farmers in Martham but Owen’s grandfather pursued a military career, purchasing the rank of Ensign in the 77^th Regiment of Foot on 27 April 1815. The regiment had returned from Spain the previous year. On 16 April 1818, he exchanged to become ensign in the 6^th Foot and exchanged again from being on half pay to be ensign in the 81^st Foot on 25 July 1834. Officers on half pay were essentially reserves. In the interim he had joined the East Norfolk Militia shortly after it was revived and was promoted to captain on 3 December 1821.

Owen Gillett passed the examination for naval cadetships in late-1875, coming fourth of forty-two candidates. He was promoted to Lieutenant in September 1885. Three years later, his dice-based naval wargame was published. Promotion to commander followed in mid-1898 and to Captain in late-1903. On 16 April 1907 he married Mabelle Alice (May), daughter of the late Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring, at St Paul’s church in Valletta, Malta, where he was King’s Harbour Master. Her mother Ellen Jane had inherited Whitmore Hall in Staffordshire in 1891 but Owen probably met May in Southsea near Portsmouth, whence her parents had moved in 1891 with their five remaining unmarried daughters after returning from Australia. All five married naval officers. Interestingly, none of the five were particularly young when they married, ranging from twenty-five to thirty-seven, May being one of two to marry at the latter age. Owen and May had two children, Michael, born in 1907, and Anne, born in 1911. Owen had assumed command of HMS Diadem, a cruiser, in 1907. Early the following year he was taking a course at the Royal Naval War College when he was described as captious and failed to complete it. Perhaps, with his war-gaming background, he thought he knew better than the instructor. Nevertheless, he was appointed to the command of the battleship Jupiter on 13 May that year, and of the cruiser Warrior on 16 February 1909. After a couple of years (1911-1913) as Commodore-in-Charge, Portland, he was promoted to Rear-Admiral on 11 September 1914, a few months into the First World War, while in command of the Armed Merchant Cruiser Armadale Castle, but was appointed senior naval officer of the important base at Simonstown, near Cape Town in South Africa in November, taking up his post in December. He was placed on the Retired List at his own request in May 1915, but deferred his retirement and remained in his post until May 1918. He was made a member of the Order of the Bath the following month, advanced to the rank of Vice-Admiral on the Retired List in February 1919 and to the rank of Admiral in March 1924.

Admiral Owen Francis Gillett died on 21 March 1938 and was buried at Halvergate. May died in 1943. They are both commemorated by brass plates, obviously engraved by the same company, Owen’s having an achievement of arms and May’s an oval of impaled arms.

Copyright: Jon Bayliss (Text & Photographs)