RICHARD M. ELLIOT, JR., LCDR, USN
Richard Elliot, Jr. '09
Lucky Bag
From the 1909 Lucky Bag:
Loss
From Find A Grave:
He was distinguished for exceptional bravery onboard US destroyer Aylwin in 1915 by rescuing men in the flooded engine room after the boiler had exploded. He was killed onboard USS Manley on March 19, 1918, when her depth charges exploded in a collision with a British ship in the convoy that the Manley was escorting. He was "killed at sea . . . while on active service in European waters." The USS Elliot was named after him.
Richard was Manley's executive officer. He was survived by his wife and is buried in Pennsylvania.
Namesake
USS Elliot (DD 146) was named for Richard; the ship was sponsored by his widow.
Memorial
Richard's classmates erected a plaque in his honor in Memorial Hall.
The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.
The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.
The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.
Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.
January 1910
Midshipman, Michigan
January 1914
Ensign, Aylwin
January 1915
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS McDougal
January 1916
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island
January 1917
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island
March 1918
Lieutenant, USS Manley
Class of 1909
Richard is one of 10 members of the Class of 1909 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
