Dudley Pound Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound ( 29 August 1877 – 21 October 1943 ) was a Royal Navy officer . He served in World War I as a battleship commander taking part in the Battle of Jutland with notable success , contributing to the sinking of the German cruiser " Wiesbaden " . He served as First Sea Lord , the professional head of the Royal Navy , for the first four years of World War II . In that role his greatest achievement was his successful campaign against German U - boat activity and the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic but he was blamed for letting the battlecruisers " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " slip into the English Channel undetected in February 1942 and criticised for ordering the dispersal of Arctic Convoy PQ 17 in July 1942 . He died shortly after resigning from office having suffered two strokes . Early life . Born the son of Alfred John Pound ( an Eton - educated barrister ) and Elizabeth Pickman Pound ( née Rogers ) ( an American from Boston ) , Pound was descended from Dudley Leavitt Pickman , an early Salem , Massachusetts merchant , on his mother ' s side . He was educated at Fonthill School in East Grinstead , Sussex . Naval career . Pound joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in the training ship HMS " Britannia " in January 1891 and was posted as a midshipman to the battleship HMS " Royal Sovereign " in the Channel Squadron in January 1893 . He transferred to the cruiser HMS " Undaunted " in May 1894 on the China Station and then joined HMS " Calypso " in the Training Squadron . Promoted to sub - lieutenant on 29 August 1896 , he joined the destroyer HMS " Opossum " in October 1897 and the battleship HMS " Magnificent " in January 1898 . Promoted to lieutenant on 29 August 1898 , he joined the torpedo school HMS " Vernon " in September 1899 and qualified as a torpedo specialist in December 1901 . He served as a torpedo officer in the cruiser HMS " Grafton " on the Pacific Station before transferring to the battleship HMS " King Edward VII " in the Atlantic Fleet in January 1905 and then to the battleship HMS " Queen " in the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1907 . Pound joined the staff at the Ordnance Department of the Admiralty in January 1909 and then , having been promoted to commander on 30 June 1909 , he transferred to the battleship HMS " Superb " in the Home Fleet in May 1911 . He joined the staff of the Royal Naval War College in early 1913 and then transferred to the battleship HMS " St Vincent " in the Home Fleet in April 1914 . Pound served in World War I and , having been promoted to captain on 31 December 1914 , he became an Additional Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord before being given command of the battleship HMS " Colossus " in May 1915 . He led her at the Battle of Jutland with notable success , contributing to the sinking of the German cruiser " Wiesbaden " . He returned to the Admiralty in July 1917 to become Assistant Director of Plans and then Director of the Operations Division ( Home ) and was closely involved in the planning for the Zeebrugge Raid . Interwar career . Pound was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 Birthday Honours and given command of the battlecruiser HMS " Repulse " in October 1920 before becoming director of the planning division at the Admiralty in June 1923 . He became a Naval Aide - de - Camp to the King on 1 January 1925 . Following Roger Keyes ' appointment as commander - in - chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in May 1925 , Pound became his chief of staff . Pound was promoted to rear admiral on 1 March 1926 and became Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff in April 1926 . He went on to be Commander of the Battle Cruiser Squadron in May 1929 and , having been promoted to vice - admiral on 15 May 1930 , he became Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel in August 1932 . In the King ' s Birthday Honours 1930 , Pound advanced to rank of Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath . On 16 January 1933 Pound was promoted to full admiral he became Chief of Staff of the Mediterranean Fleet . In March 1936 , was appointed Commander - in - Chief , Mediterranean Fleet . On 20 May 1937 Pound was appointed as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order . In the 1939 New Year Honours , Pound advanced to the rank of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath . First Sea Lord . Pound became First Sea Lord in June 1939 and was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 31 July 1939 . His health was doubtful even then , but other experienced admirals were in even poorer health . He also became First and Principal Naval Aide - de - Camp to the King in October 1941 . There are sharply divided opinions of Pound as First Sea Lord during the early years of World War II . His admirals and captains at sea accused him of " back seat driving " and he had some clashes with John Tovey , commander of the Home Fleet . Winston Churchill , with whom he worked from September 1939 , worked with him closely on naval strategies such that he was referred to as " Churchill ' s anchor " . However he has also been described as a " cunning old badger " who had used guile to frustrate Churchill ' s dramatic idea of sending a battle fleet into the Baltic early in the war . Perhaps Pound ' s greatest achievement was his successful campaign against German U - boat activity and the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic but he was blamed for letting the battlecruisers " Scharnhorst " and " Gneisenau " slip into the English Channel undetected in February 1942 and criticised for ordering the dispersal of Arctic Convoy PQ 17 in July 1942 . Pound refused a peerage but was appointed to the Order of Merit on 3 September 1943 , four years after the outbreak of the war . Pound suffered from hip degeneration , which kept him from sleeping , causing him to doze off at meetings . In July 1943 Pound ' s wife died ; by this time it was clear that his health was declining and after suffering two strokes he resigned formally on 20 September 1943 . He died from a brain tumor at the Royal Masonic Hospital in London on 21 October ( known in the Royal Navy as Trafalgar Day ) 1943 and , after a funeral service in Westminster Abbey , his ashes were scattered at sea . Family . In 1908 Pound married Betty Whitehead ; they had two sons and a daughter .