Henry Hew Gordon Dacre
Stoker
Male
Ireland
1885-02-02
Dublin, Ireland
1966-02-02
London, England
From The Times, 3 February 1966:
Obituary – Captain Hew G. Stoker
Captain Hew G. Stoker, the actor, who died on Wednesday, his 81st birthday, will be equally well remembered as Captain Hew G.D. Stoker, D.S.O., R.N., commander of the first submarine to travel half-way round the world and to dive through the Dardanelles during the course of operations against Turkey in 1915.
Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker, a younger son of William Stoker, was born in Dublin on February 2, 1885, entered the Royal Navy in 1900, and joined the newly-formed submarine headquarters in 1906. He was lent to the Australian Navy as Captain of the submarine AE2, but the offer of this ship for service in home waters was accepted by the Admiralty soon after the outbreak of war. AE2 joined the Fleet off Gallipoli in February, 1915, dived through the strait on the day of the troops’ disembarkation, but was hit and holed in the Sea of Marmora. Stoker remained a prisoner of war in Turkey for the next three-and-a half years.
On his return to England he felt unhappy in the post-war Service, and in 1920, while waiting for a naval appointment. he improved his acquaintance with the theatre, hitherto limited to a few performances in prisoner of war camps, by taking a small part in Harold M. Harwood’s The Grain of Mustard Seed. As Norman McKinnel, his first director, had warned him, the question was not whether Stoker had talent – McKinnel was satisfied on that score – but whether he would get engagements.
Luckily he proved to be a “natural” for his next part, that of a country squire, a Philistine but no fool, in Harwood’s A Social Convenience: a part of a type common in plays of that period and thenceforward, since he continued to show a flair for it, entrusted to Stoker on many occasions between the two wars. He made it seem especially plausible and at the same time comic in such small-scale performances as his Colonel in Journey’s End and his Admiral in The Flashing Stream.
His elaborately casual manner sat authentically on those characters. He gave the weight of whole speeches to their monosyllabic replies. Stoker was in management when the Second World War began, but he rejoined the Navy and served for the duration, reverting to the Retired List with the rank of captain in 1946. He was back in the theatre that same year, and soon afterwards appeared in two of the last plays of Lonsdale and James Bridie respectively.
In addition to publishing his autobiography Straws in the Wind, Stoker had collaborated in a play with a naval background Under the Surface and himself taken a part in it in 1932., He married Miss Dorothie M. Pidcock, the actress, in 1925.
1904 - 1928
0
26
9
Final
Roger E. Worthington 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-3
6-1
6-3
Round 1
William Powell 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-8
6-3
11-9
2-6
6-1
Round 1
Henry Standring 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-2
4-6
4-6
6-3
6-4
Round 1
John Pennycuick 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-3
7-5
6-2
Round 1
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
Brian Helmore
3-6
5-7
6-3
6-0
6-3
Round 2
Sydney Jacob 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-3
7-5
6-2
Round 1
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
Alexander (Alex) Blair
2-6
7-5
8-10
6-1
6-3
Round 2
Henry Alfred Carless 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-0
6-0
3-6
5-7
6-2
Round 1
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
Sidney Johnson Watts
6-4
6-2
6-2
Round 2
Cecil John Tindell-Green 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-3
7-5
6-4
Round 1
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
J.T. Baines
6-4
3-6
1-6
4-5
ret.
Round 2
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
H.S. Taylor Young
6-2
6-1
6-2
Round 3
Nicolae Mishu 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-1
2-6
6-2
6-3
Round 1
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
L.M. Andrews
0-6
9-7
6-3
6-2
Round 2
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
Arthur Wallis Myers
1-6
6-3
6-2
2-6
Round 3
Manuel Alonso 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-3
6-1
6-2
Round 1
Major Josiah George Ritchie 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-1
6-3
7-5
Round 2
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
Arthur Cyril Belgrave
7-5
6-2
7-5
Round 3
Gerald (Gerry) Millard 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
5-6
6-3
6-2
4-6
6-2
Round 1
S. Powell Blackmore 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
w.o.
Round 2
George Stoddart 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-0
6-8
9-7
Round 1
William Mather (Bill) Swinden 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
3-6
6-3
6-3
Round 1
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker 1 *
Brian Helmore
6-3
6-3
Round 2
Gordon Lowe 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
7-5
6-3
Final
C.H. Cole 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-3
4-6
6-1
Quarterfinals
F.A. Gibson 1 *
Henry Hew Gordon Dacre Stoker
6-4
7-5