Robin Dalglish

Robin Dalglish was born in Australia, one of six children to a surveyor. Despite his parents both being born in Australia, they had strong Scottish and French roots. In 1888 the family decided to make a new life in Scotland, but Dalglish’s father died before they could make the journey and his mother set sail with him and his five siblings the following year.

Dalglish was educated at the Oratory school in Birmingham before going to the Royal Naval College at Osborne on the Isle of Wight, in January 1895. He rose through the ranks from cadet to rear-admiral, the Navy’s third most senior rank.

Dalglish served in World War I and took part in the Battle of Jutland. Appointed to captain in 1918, he was, from 1923-25, captain at the Royal Naval Training Establishment at Shotley in Suffolk. After that, Dalglish became a naval assistant to the Second Sea Lord, until 1928 when he became commodore in command of the Atlantic Fleet Destroyer Flotillas. After that he was a Naval aide-de-camp to King George V in 1930-31, and from 1932, until shortly before his death in 1934, Dalglish commanded the Royal Australian Navy. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1933 New Year’s Honours list.

A fine fencer, Dalglish never won a British title, but won many sabre and épée titles in the Navy. He competed in the 1920 and 1924 Olympics, reaching the sabre final in the first of those two years. He was also one of the 12 fencers provisionally selected for the individual sabre event for the 1912 Olympics, but due to his Naval commitments was unable to attend. One of Dalglish’s finest fencing moments was in becoming both the sabre and épée champion at the 1925 Royal Tournament in London.