Claude Congreve Dobson

Leading motor boats through fierce fire to strike Kronstadt.

Claude Congreve Dobson was born in the Bristol area on January 1, 1885. He entered the Royal Navy as a young man and became a submarine officer. In July 1915, while commanding C27 near Fair Isle, he sank the German submarine U23 during an operation involving a trawler and a towed British submarine. This success brought him the Distinguished Service Order. He later commanded several submarines and reached the rank of commander in 1918.

On August 18, 1919, during British operations in the Baltic, Dobson led eight coastal motor boats against the fortified naval anchorage at Kronstadt. From CMB31 he directed the flotilla through the approaches and entered the harbour under heavy machine-gun fire. His boat torpedoed the battleship Andrei Pervozvanny before returning through fire from the forts and batteries. The raid damaged battleships and sank a submarine depot ship. Dobson received the Victoria Cross for his leadership, skill and gallantry. King George V invested him at Buckingham Palace on December 18, 1919.

His later career included service on loan to the Royal Australian Navy and command of British cruisers. Promoted captain in 1925, he retired in 1935 and became a rear-admiral on the retired list in July 1936. He died at the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, on June 26, 1940, and is buried at Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham. His six-medal group, including the Victoria Cross, is held by the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

**Victoria Cross citation**

“For most conspicuous gallantry, skill and devotion to duty on the occasion of the attack on Kronstadt Harbour on 18th of August, 1919. Commander Dobson organised and was in command of the Coastal Motor Boat Flotilla. He led the flotilla through the chain of forts to the entrance to the harbour. Coastal Motor Boat No. 31, from which he directed the general operations, then passed in, under a very heavy machine-gun fire, and torpedoed the Bolshevik Battleship ‘Andrei Pervozanni,’ subsequently returning through the heavy fire of the forts and batteries to the open sea.”