Rear Admiral Gilbert Jonathan Rowcliff (July 22, 1881 – July 14, 1963) was an officer of the United States Navy during the First World War and the Second World War. After early service in the Far East, he specialised in gunnery, serving in that capacity on many US Navy capital ships. During World War I he served with the US Naval Force sent to join the British Grand Fleet.
After the war he took command of multiple heavy units of the US fleet, before being appointed Judge Advocate General of the Navy in 1936. Thereafter he commanded various cruiser squadrons of the Atlantic Fleet before his retirement at the end of World War II.
Early life and career
Rowcliff was born in Peoria, Illinois. He attended public school in Peoria before his appointment to the United States Naval Academy from Illinois in 1896. While a midshipman he took an active part in fencing and intercollegiate tournaments which were being developed at that time. Graduated in May, 1902, he served the two years at sea which were then required by law before commissioning and was commissioned ensign in May 1904. Rowcliff was subsequently promoted as follows: Lieutenant (both grades) May 2, 1907; lieutenant commander, March 22, 1915; commander, July 1, 1919; captain, February 23, 1925; and rear admiral, January 1, 1936. He was transferred to the retired list of the Navy in that rank on August 1, 1945.
After graduation in May, 1902, he was ordered to the Asiatic Station, where he joined the gunboat , a unit of the Asiatic Fleet on patrol duty in Chinese waters. When the Wilmington was placed out of commission on June 30, 1904, at Cavite in the Philippines, he was transferred to the , a coast battleship on duty in Pacific and Asiatic waters, and served in that vessel until her decommissioning in May 1906.
Atlantic Fleet
He returned to the United States in June 1906 for duty in the Presidential yacht , and was aboard when President Theodore Roosevelt reviewed the Battleship Squadron on its return from a round-the-world cruise in 1909. He had additional duty from November 1908 until October 1910 as Naval Aide at the White House, serving both Presidents Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. In October 1910 he joined the , and served as ordnance officer of that battleship from May to July 1911. He was then assigned duty as division ordnance officer, still attached to the Virginia, flagship of the Fourth Division, later with the Third Division, Atlantic Fleet.
Detached from the Virginia In January 1914, he assisted in fitting out the , and served as ordnance officer of that battleship from her commissioning, April 15, 1914, until June 1916. He was next assigned duty as aide on the staff of commander, second in command, Atlantic Fleet, and to such gunnery duties as assigned and in that capacity served on the staff of Vice Admiral DeWitt Coffman, USN, commander, Battleship Force, Atlantic Fleet flagship , later . In December 1916 he had additional duty as a member of the board which conducted battery tests of the . In January 1917 he was assigned temporary duty as senior member of the board appointed for the purpose of studying torpedo policy for the Navy, and in April of that year was a member of the board conducting experimental firing of the 3-gun turrets on the Arizona. He then returned to the Wyoming, to continue duty on the staff of Commander Battleship Force, Atlantic Fleet, and in July 1917, when Vice Admiral Coffman was designated commander, Battleship Force 2, he (then a lieutenant commander) continued to serve as aide on his staff. In April 1918 he had temporary additional duty in Rosyth, Scotland, in connection with the storing of reserve ammunition for Battleship Division 9. For World War I service he was awarded the Navy Cross with the following citation:
For exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility as Gunnery Officer on the Staff of the Commander, Battleship Force Two of the Atlantic Fleet, in which capacity, during a trip aboard he acquired valuable information as to foreign methods of fire control, which later were applied by him with excellent results in improving target practice in the Atlantic Fleet.