Sir Henry John Oram, 1858 - 1939

Extract

Henry Oram was born in June 1858, and though of somewhat frail health, from an early age he showed remarkable intelligence and aptitude for learning and always did well at school. In 1875 he went to the Engineering College at Keyham, which had not long been started. Having done very well at Keyham he went in 1879 to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich, where he stayed for three years, completing the course there with great distinction and obtaining a first-class certificate with an extraordinarily high percentage of marks. On leaving Greenwich he was appointed to H.M.S. Crocodile and served as a junior engineer in that ship and in H.M.S. Malabar for about two years, thus gaining sea experience. He was appointed at the Admiralty in 1884 and promoted to Engineer in the same year. From that time he was kept continuously employed at the Admiralty, passing through all Engineer grades until his final retirement as Engineer ViceAdmiral, having then occupied the great position of Engineerin-Chief of the Navy for a period of ten years.