Silken Words for the Admiral

WHEN Eng Rear Admiral Charles Rudd retired in 1911 after five years as manager of the engineering department at Chatham Dockyard not only was he eulogised in verse, a large silk was produced to mark the occasion, similar to those commemorating the launches of many Chatham-built ships.

The verse was by Philip Thompson, a dockyard employee known throughout the Medway Towns as the Dockyard Poet. The title was unofficial but he nevertheless had management's blessing to produce the silks commercially and Adm Rudd's was printed at Thorn's small works in Gillingham. The firm went out of business during the First World War and later silks were produced in monochrome by Mackay.

The silk includes a number of verses, but under the heading 'Gallant Devoted Service', Thompson wrote of the admiral:

And thus we think of him - our Admiral brave,
Who paced the storm tossed sea and tranquil wave,
From youth to manhood in a Service great, -
A "Stalwart Champion" of a worthy State.

Where duty called, on Land or azure Main.
Each post he filled - yea! for the nation's gain;
Inspiring those he governed day by day,
To learn that love means also to obey.

With joy we've hailed the vast improvement made
In Order, Plant, and comfort thus to aid -
True progress, and to cope with high speed ways
Which master minds invent, in modern days

So who was the man who inspired such praise? Charles Rudd was born at Plumstead in February 1851 and joined Woolwich Dockyard as an engineer student in July 1866, moving to Portsmouth Dockyard in July 1869, probably as a result of the closure of the yard at Woolwich. The following year he went to the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at Kensington, later earning a first class certificate. His seniority as an Assistant Engineer dates from 30 July 1872.

He went through the usual set of postings until on 22 July 1875 he was appointed to the SERAPIS, which had been commissioned to take the then Prince of Wales on an expensive and controversial tour of India. Rudd, who became a 1st Class Assistant Engineer on 30 July 1875, worked under Chief Engineer John G Shearman and Engineer William Kelly, both of whom had been appointed to the ship a year earlier. In preparation for the voyage to India, they were joined by five more engineers and two assistant engineers. Despite this, the SERAPIS was to suffer recurring engine problems.

The ship arrived back at Portsmouth on 11 May 1876, after which Rudd went to the INDUS, the guardship and flagship of the Admiral Superintendent at Devonport. He was appointed Engineer in June 1877 and passed for Chief Engineer in 1880, by which time he had served nearly nine years at sea. His appointment as Chief Engineer did not, however, follow until 1885 and in 1889 he became a Staff Engineer, with promotion to Fleet Engineer in 1893.

He became an Inspector of Machinery in 1900 and two years later was promoted to Chief Inspector of Machinery, a rank which later became Engineer Rear Admiral. For ten years he was Assistant to the Director of Dockyards until he became manager of the Chatham engineering department on 1 January 1906, retiring on 21 February 1911. Two years later he took a leading part in the establishment of the STORK, the Navy League training ship at Hammersmith for poor boys of good character.

In his early 60s when war broke out in 1914, he was appointed in January 1916 to the Director of Dockyards Department for special service on a salary of £1,000 a year. After the war he was appointed to a committee to look at Admiralty facilities for the construction of merchant ships.;

His retired pay resumed in March 1919 and in 1925 his wife Lucy died. He survived her by only two years.