Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen

Some naval officers are remembered for the battles they won. Captain Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen is remembered for deliberately entering a battle he could not win, because doing so gave dozens of other ships a chance to escape. His final stand aboard HMS Jervis Bay during Convoy HX 84 became one of the Royal Navy's defining acts of sacrifice in the Second World War and earned him the Victoria Cross posthumously. Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen was born on 8 October 1891 at Southsea, Hampshire, into a naval family. He entered the Royal Naval College at Osborne as a boy and was appointed a midshipman in HMS Dreadnought in 1909. By the outbreak of the First World War he was already an experienced young officer. He survived the loss of HMS Amphion early in the conflict and subsequently served in destroyers and torpedo craft, building the seamanship and command experience that would later define his career. Fegen's courage was demonstrated long before the action for which he became famous. On 24 March 1918, the British steamship War Knight collided with the American oil carrier O. B. Jennings in the English Channel. The latter's cargo of naphtha caught fire, surrounding the ships and nearby water with flames. Fegen, then a lieutenant commanding HMS Garland, brought his destroyer into the danger area, rescued men from a swamped boat, then went alongside the burning tanker to take off those still trapped aboard. Garland ultimately rescued four officers and twenty-two men. For that rescue, Fegen received the Sea Gallantry Medal in Silver. The official Board of Trade notice, published on 18 March 1919, praised the way he "handled his ship in a very able manner under difficult conditions." It was an award for lifesaving rather than combat, but it revealed the same characteristic later seen aboard Jervis Bay: a willingness to place his own ship in extreme danger when other lives depended upon it. His reputation continued to grow between the wars. Fegen served in a variety of naval appointments, including duty connected with the Royal Australian Naval College and service on the China Station. On 2 December 1930, while serving in Chinese waters, he again became involved in a lifesaving operation when the Dutch motor schooner Hedwig was wrecked near Hong Kong. The Netherlands subsequently awarded him the Silver Medal for Humane Assistance, by Royal Decree No. 17 of 3 October 1931. The award record credited Fegen with leading the two rescue boats involved in saving members of the Dutch vessel's crew. He also received an Admiralty commendation for the rescue. When the Second World War began, Fegen returned to operational sea service. After serving in HMS Emerald, he became acting Captain of the armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay in 1940. On 5 November 1940, Jervis Bay was escorting the Atlantic convoy HX 84 when the convoy encountered the vastly more powerful German warship Admiral Scheer. Fegen immediately understood what was at stake. Jervis Bay could not defeat the German raider, but she could force it to concentrate on her long enough for the merchant ships to scatter. Fegen therefore turned Jervis Bay toward the enemy. The official Victoria Cross citation recorded that he drew clear of the convoy, steamed directly at the German warship and placed his own ship between the raider and the merchantmen. Outgunned and repeatedly hit, Jervis Bay was crippled and set ablaze, yet continued to absorb the enemy's fire while the convoy escaped. Fegen remained with his ship and was killed during the action. Jervis Bay eventually sank in the Atlantic, taking her captain and most of her company with her. The Victoria Cross was announced in The London Gazette on 22 November 1940. Its citation captured the meaning of Fegen's final action in a few words, describing his conduct as "valour in challenging hopeless odds and giving his life to save the many ships it was his duty to protect." The citation went on to record how Jervis Bay deliberately engaged the enemy so that the merchantmen could scatter and escape. Fegen was 49 years old when he died. With no known grave, he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial. His story is remarkable not simply because of the Victoria Cross, but because his career reveals a consistent pattern. In 1918 he took HMS Garland alongside a burning tanker to save trapped sailors. In 1930 he led rescue boats to the wrecked Hedwig. In 1940, aboard HMS Jervis Bay, he placed an entire ship between a powerful enemy and the merchantmen under his protection. Captain Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen VC remains inseparably linked with HMS Jervis Bay and Convoy HX 84. His final decision was not made in expectation of victory. It was made to buy time for others, and that sacrifice became his enduring legacy in Royal Navy history.