James Fergusson (Royal Navy officer)

Born the son of Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet and Lady Edith Christian Ramsay, Fergusson joined the Royal Navy in 1887.[http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=EP19220621.2.83&l=mi&e=-------10--1----0-- Resignations and Promotions] Evening Post 5 May 1922 He served as a lieutenant on board the cruiser HMS Barrosa when in January 1900 he was landed in Cape Colony to take part in the Second Boer War,{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=The War – Naval officers at the front|date=31 January 1900 |page=10 |issue=36053}} during which he was wounded, mentioned in despatches and promoted to commander on 21 October 1900, for services during the war.[http://thepeerage.com/p40606.htm The Peerage.com] In 1902 he was posted to the battleship HMS Royal Sovereign, which in August commissioned as coast guard ship at Portsmouth.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Naval & Military intelligence |date=9 July 1902 |page=5 |issue=36815}}

He served in World War I commanding the battleships HMS Benbow and HMS Thunderer and seeing action at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. He went on to be Commander of Patrols at Malta and then Commander of the 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron in which capacity he was present at the surrender of the German Fleet.

After the War he became Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff and then Assistant-Chief of the Naval Staff. He became Commander of the 1st Light Cruiser Squadron in 1920 and went on to be Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station in 1924.

In 1901 he married Enid Githa Williams (known by her middle name);{{cite news|title=Personal Gossip from Home|url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=CHP19011123.2.10|accessdate=9 May 2015|work=The Press|volume=LVIII|issue=11130|date=23 November 1901|page=4}} they had four daughters. Githa Williams was a daughter of New Zealand landowner and prominent Wellington resident, Thomas Coldham Williams.[https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19120520.2.29 Obituary, Mr T C Williams. The Evening Post], 20 May 1912, page 3{{cite book | page=515 | editor-last = Scholefield | editor-first = Guy | editor-link = Guy Scholefield | title = A Dictionary of New Zealand Biography : M–Addenda | volume = II | year = 1940 | publisher = Department of Internal Affairs | location = Wellington | url = https://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/documents/dnzb-1940/scholefield-dnzb-v2.pdf | accessdate=9 May 2015}} Her elder sister Eila married Vernon Reed in 1909; he represented the {{NZ electorate link|Bay of Islands}} electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives.{{cite news | url=http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=search&d=NZH19090429.2.6 | title=Interesting Wedding | work=The New Zealand Herald | volume=XLVI | issue=14047 | date=29 April 1909 | accessdate=9 May 2015 | page=3}}

Fergusson's elder brother Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet, was 3rd Governor-General of New Zealand (1924–1930).{{cite book |title=An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand |origyear=First published in 1966 |publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage / Te Manatū Taonga |url= http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/1966/fergusson-general-sir-charles-gcb-gcmg-dso-mvo-lld | editor-first=A. H. |editor-last=McLintock |editor-link=Alexander Hare McLintock |accessdate=9 May 2015 |chapter= Fergusson, General Sir Charles, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., D.S.O., M.V.O., LL.D. (Glasgow), Bt. |date= 23 April 2009}}

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{{succession box|title=Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff|before=Sir Sydney Fremantle|after=Sir Osmond Brock|years=May 1919–August 1919}}

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{{succession box|title=Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station|before=Sir Michael Culme-Seymour|after=Sir Walter Cowan|years=1924–1926}}

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Category:1871 births

Category:1942 deaths

Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Second Boer War

Category:Royal Navy admirals of World War I

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath

Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George

James

Category:Younger sons of baronets

Category:Lords of the Admiralty

Category:British expatriates in the British West Indies

Category:Williams family (New Zealand)