Victor Valois

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Victor Valois
Anton Friedrich Victor Valois.jpg
Valois was generally reckoned by other naval officers to be a highly intelligent and pleasant man who spoke perfect English.
Birth name Anton Friedrich Victor Valois
Birth date 14 August 1841 (1841-08-14)
Place of birth Preußisch Holland, Regierungsbezirk Königsberg, Kingdom of Prussia, German Confederation
Death date 4 January 1924 (1924-01-05) (aged 82)
Place of death Königsberg, East Prussia, Free State of Prussia, German Reich
Resting place Baden-Baden municipal cemetery
Allegiance  Prussia
Wappen des Deutschen Bundes.jpg German Confederation
Coat of arms of North German Confederation.png North German Confederation
 German Empire
Service/branch Prussian war ensign after 1850.png Royal Prussian Navy
Kriegsflagge der Norddeutschen Bundesmarine (1867–1871).png Norddeutsche Bundesmarine
 Kaiserliche Marine
Years of service 1857–1896
Rank Honorary Admiral
Commands held East Asia Squadron (Ostasiengeschwader)
Battles/wars German-Danish War
Franco-German War
Awards Red Eagle Order
Prussian Order of the Crown
Relations ∞ Wilhelmine "Minna" von Be(h)rendt[1]

Anton Friedrich Victor Valois (14 August 1841 – 4 January 1924) was a German naval officer of the Royal Prussian Navy (German: Königlich Preußische Marine), the North German Federal Navy (German: Marine des Norddeutschen Bundes) and the Kaiserliche Marine, finally a well decorated honorary Admiral.

Life

Attack by the Prussian corvette SMS Augusta on French merchant ships in the Gironde in the Franco-German War of 1870/71; Painting by Alexander Kircher.
Vize-Admiral Victor Valois.jpg

In the spring of 1857, before the age of 16, Valois joined the Prussian Navy and passed his entrance exam at the Sea Cadet Institute in Berlin on 18 June 1857. Appointed as a Cadett-Aspirant (Cadet Candidate), he then took up his first command on board the corvette Amazone, with which he undertook a training trip to Scandinavia and Great Britain. This was followed by a course at the Sea Cadet Institute, which was followed by a three-month training trip on the frigate Gefion in 1858. Together with the other cadets of his year, Valois was transferred to the frigate Thetis from 1859 to 1862 and took part in her three-year voyage to East Asia. After his return, Valois attended a final officer course, which he completed with the examination to become an officer at sea, was commissioned in the summer of 1863 and served on the steam-powered Gunboat SMS Loreley. As such he served in the Prussian war with Denmark under command of Captain Hans Kuhn. On 17 March 1864, he participated in the naval battle at Jasmund. At the end of the war in 1866 the Prussian navy was transferred to the navy of the North German Confederation.

From 1865 to 1868, Valois circumnavigated the world on the steam frigate Vineta, and subsequently on the sail corvette Nymphe. With the rest of the crew of Nymph, he transferred to the S.M.S. Augusta, a lieutenant commander, where he was both second officer and navigation officer. After a brief supply trip to Kiel, he served as the navigator for the steam corvette SMS Augusta around the British Isles. The ship attacked several vessels of the French government at Bordeaux during the Franco-German War, taking two as prizes, and sinking a steamship loaded with supplies for the French Army. Subsequently, Augusta took refuge in the Spanish harbour at Vigo, where it was blockaded by three French warships until 1871, when the ship returned to Kiel.

He had taken part in a postgraduate training course at the Naval Academy in Kiel. Otto von Diederichs, Felix von Bendemann and Gustav von Senden-Bibran attended this course with him until 1874. Valois commanded the corvette SMS Victoria (France, 1863) in February 1881 on a cruise to Liberia to protest a native attack on the shipwrecked crew of a German merchant ship. He exacted a monetary fine from the Liberian government and shelled the village of the natives involved in the attack. He also took part in a joint show of force with British forces outside Montenegro. From 1884 to 1886, Valois led the cruiser frigate SMS Gneisenau and took part with her in operations of the East African Cruiser Squadron. Among other things, he gave the first official report on the German protected area of ​​Witu.

In early 1890, he left the position of Director (Oberwerftdirektor) of the Imperial Shipyard in Kiel to become commander of the German East Asia Squadron. In December 1890 ,he was in Australia with SMS Sophie, SMS Leipzig, SMS Arcona and SMS Alexandrine. The purpose of the East Asia Squadron was to protect and promote imperialist interest in Asia and the Pacific. On 21 December 1890, he was in Samoa with his squadron in connection with German plans to annex the Marshall Islands when an approaching hurricane caused him to flee in his flagship Leipzig.

This was a period of tensions and rivalries in the Pacific between the great powers, including Germany and the United States. This tension was increased slightly when Valois brought his squadron into San Francisco on 4 June 1891 without the expected courtesy of raising an American flag. Perhaps it was for this reason that Admiral Andrew E. K. Benham, commander of Mare Island Station did not visit Valois. This was during the 1891 Chilean Civil War and he was soon ordered south where, along with US and British navies, he was involved in the search for the gun-running Chilean ship Itata and to provide protection to the Germans living there during a civil war.

Returning to Germany, he was Chief of the North Sea Naval Station from 15 October 1892 to 1 August 1896, before retiring. After his retirement, Valois worked as a writer and dealt with current naval issues. Valois was a member of the Colonial Council and executive vice-president of the German Colonial Society from 1900 to 1902. Here he took a progressive position and campaigned for the abolition of slavery by Arabs in Africa.

Family

Valois' great-grandfather, presumably a Huguenot, fled from France to Switzerland during the Seven Years' War, where he was conscripted into service of the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. During the Prussian victory at Liegnitz, he was among the 4,700 Imperial prisoners, and volunteered to join the Prussian military under Friedrich the Great. After the war, he settled in the town of Prussian Holland, a village settled by Dutch refugees during the fourteenth century. The son of the erstwhile prisoner became a merchant, and his son, while studying to be a justice (later commissioner of justice), married Antonie Pohl-Senslau, the daughter of Karl Pohl-Senslau, one of the deputies of the Prussian House of Lords.

Promotions

  • 1 October 1859 Volontair-Cadett (Officer Candidate)
  • 10 December 1859 Seekadett (Officer Cadet)
  • Summer 1863 Fähnrich zur See (2nd Lieutenant)
    • rank was renamed Unterlieutenant zur See on 19 July 1864
  • 29 August 1866 Lieutenant zur See (1st Lieutenant)
  • 25 January 1870 Capitain-Lieutenant (Lieutenant Captain)
  • 20 July 1875 Korvettenkapitän (Corvette Captain – Lieutenant Commander) without Patent (ernannt)
    • later received a patent from 15 March 1875
  • 17 December 1881 Kapitän zur See (Captain at Sea – Captain)
  • 1 April 1889 Kontre-Admiral (Rear Admiral)
  • 10 October 1892 Vize-Admiral (Vice Admiral)
    • 1 August 1896 Vize-Admiral z. D. (retired, but at disposal)
  • 27 January 1912 Charakter als Admiral (Honorary Admiral)

Awards, decorations and honours

Awards and decorations

  • War Commemorative Medal of 1864 (Kriegs-Denkmünze für 1864; KD64)
  • War Commemorative Medal of 1870–1871 (Kaiserliche Kriegsdenkmünze 1870/71; KD70/71)[2]
  • Royal Norwegian Order of Saint Olav, Knight's Cross (NO3) in 1873
    • later re-categorized as Knight's Cross 1st Class (NO3a)
  • Prussian Long Service Cross for 25 years (Königlich Preußisches Dienstauszeichnungskreuz)
  • Red Eagle Order (Roter Adlerorden), 4th Class
  • Prussian Order of the Crown (Kronenorden), 3rd Class with Swords
  • Red Eagle Order, 3rd Class with the Bow (mit der Schleife)
  • Prussian Order of the Crown, 2nd Class with Swords on Ring[3]
  • Red Eagle Order, 2nd Class with Oak Leaves
  • Star to his Prussian Order of the Crown 2nd Class with Swords on Ring[4] on 21 January 1894
  • Oldenburg House and Merit Order of Duke Peter Frederick Louis (Oldenburgischer Haus- und Verdienstorden des Herzogs Peter Friedrich Ludwig), Grand Cross of Honour (Ehren-Großkreuz; OV1)
  • Princely Waldeck Military Merit Cross, 1st Class (WV1)
  • Star to his Red Eagle Order 2nd Class with Oak Leaves[5] on 21 January 1895
  • Order of the Crown of Romania, Grand Cross (RumK1)
  • Prussian Order of the Crown, 1st Class with Swords on Ring[6] on 18 July 1896
  • Prussian Centenary Medal 1897 (Zentenarmedaille)

Honours

In Wilhelmshaven, Valoisplatz, the City Hotel Valois and the associated hotel restaurant Le Valois are named after Victor Valois.

Writings (excerpt)

  • Marokko – Helgoland, Berlin (c. 1895)
  • Seemacht, Seegeltung, Seeherrschaft – Kurze Betrachtungen über Seekriegsführung, Verlag Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1899
  • Die Kreuzfahrt S.M.S. "Augusta" a.d. französischen Küste. Episode aus dem grossen Kriege 1870-71, nach eigenen Erlebnissen, 1903
  • Aus den Erlebnissen eines alten Seeoffiziers, Potsdam (c. 1900/07)
  • Deutschland als Seemacht, Wiegand, Leipzig 1908
  • Amerikana Japs und Yankees: der Panamakanal als Erzieher: Monroe Doktrin, Berlin 1914
  • Nieder mit England! Betrachtungen und Erwägungen, Berlin 1915

References

  1. ↑ Visit of German Fleet (Admiral and Mrs. Valois), San Francisco News Letter and California Advertiser, June 13, 1891
  2. ↑ Liste der Kaiserlichen Marine für das Jahr 1870/71, p. 19
  3. ↑ Rang- und Quartierliste der Kaiserlich Deutschen Marine für das Jahr 1888, p. 35
  4. ↑ Rang- und Quartierliste der Kaiserlich Deutschen Marine für das Jahr 1895, p. 56
  5. ↑ Rang- und Quartierliste der Kaiserlich Deutschen Marine für das Jahr 1896, p. 58
  6. ↑ Deutscher Ordens-Almanach, 1908, p. 1581
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