page_title: Somerset Gough-Calthorpe
section_title: First World War
hierarchical_section_title: Somerset Gough-Calthorpe / Naval career / First World War
caption_attribution_description: Aerial photograph of British battleship HMS Superb under way.
context_page_description: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe GCB, GCMG, CVO, DL, sometimes known as Sir Somerset Calthorpe, was a Royal Navy officer and a member of the Gough-Calthorpe family. After serving as a junior officer during the Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War, he became naval attaché observing the actions of the Imperial Russian Navy during the Russo-Japanese War and then went on to command an armoured cruiser and then a battleship during the early years of the 20th century.
  During the First World War Gough-Calthorpe initially served as commander of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet, then became Second Sea Lord and after that became Admiral commanding the Coastguard and Reserves. In the closing years of the War he served as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, in which capacity he signed the Armistice of Mudros on behalf of all the Allies, by which the Ottoman Empire accepted defeat and ceased hostilities. The Occupation of Constantinople began with the Allied fleet entering Constantinople in November 1918 and it was Gough-Calthorpe's flagship, HMS Superb, that led the way.
context_section_description: Gough-Calthorpe became commander of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet, with his flag in the armoured cruiser HMS Shannon, in July 1914 on the outbreak of the First World War. Advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1916, he became Second Sea Lord in July 1916 and Admiral commanding the Coastguard and Reserves in December 1916. Promoted to vice-admiral on 26 April 1917, he became Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, with his flag in the battleship HMS Superb, in July 1917. In that capacity he established a complex convoy system to protect British and allied shipping at sea in the Mediterranean from attack by enemy submarines.
  He went on to sign the Armistice of Mudros on behalf of all the Allies on 30 October 1918, by which the Ottoman Empire accepted defeat and ceased hostilities. Georges Clemenceau, Prime Minister of France, complained that Admiral Dominique-Marie Gauchet had not been present at the treaty signing but the British Government gave Gough-Calthorpe its full backing. When the Allied fleet steamed into Constantinople in November 1918, it was Gough-Calthorpe's flagship, HMS Superb, that led the way.
caption: The Battleship, HMS Superb, which, as Gough-Calthorpe's flagship, led the Allied fleet that steamed into Constantinople in November 1918
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