Humphrey Osbaldeston Brooke Firman

Took supplies upriver through fire to reach a besieged force

Humphrey Osbaldeston Brooke Firman was born in Kensington, London, on 24 November 1886. He entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1901 and served as a midshipman on the China Station. Subsequent appointments took him to the Channel and Atlantic fleets and to the royal yacht Victoria and Albert.

Promoted lieutenant in 1908, he joined Diana and participated in operations off Somaliland. Later service in Pelorus involved the Persian Gulf campaign. These deployments gave him experience of naval work in distant waters before the outbreak of the First World War.

Firman served in Proserpine from September 1914 and, early in 1916, took command of the river gunboat Greenfly. British forces in Mesopotamia were attempting to reach the army besieged at Kut. When conventional relief efforts failed, the steamer Julnar was prepared to carry food through the Turkish positions on the Tigris.

On the evening of 24 April 1916 Firman commanded the vessel as she left Falahiyah with 270 tons of supplies. Lieutenant Commander Charles Cowley assisted him. Supporting artillery and machine-gun fire sought to distract the defenders, but Julnar was detected and subjected to heavy fire as she moved upriver.

The ship failed to reach Kut. Near Magasis, obstacles and enemy fire stopped her progress. Firman was killed, and the vessel and surviving crew fell into Turkish hands. Cowley was also killed. The posthumous Victoria Crosses awarded to both officers recognized their determination in undertaking a mission with exceptionally poor prospects of survival.

Firman was twenty-nine and unmarried. His death ended a naval career spanning China, the African coast, the Persian Gulf and the rivers of Mesopotamia. His father received the Victoria Cross from George V in February 1917. Firman has no known surviving grave and is commemorated on the Basra Memorial.