World War I Rear Admiral Sir Christopher George Francis Maurice Cradock KCVO CB SGM (2 July 1862 – 1 November 1914) was an English senior officer of the Royal Navy.

Appointed Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station before the war, his mission was to protect Allied merchant shipping by hunting down German commerce raiders.

Late in 1914 he was tasked to search for and destroy the East Asia Squadron of the Imperial German Navy as it headed home around the tip of South America.

Believing that he had no choice but to engage the squadron in accordance with his orders, despite his numerical and tactical inferiority, he was killed during the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile in November when the German ships sank his flagship.

He was briefly recalled to active duty aboard the new battleship HMS Howe to help during her shakedown cruise and to prepare her for the fleet review in Spithead in August.

After returning to Dolphin, Cradock helped to rescue the crew of the Brazilian cruiser Almirante Barroso, which was wrecked on the coast of the Red Sea near Ras Zeith on 21 May 1893 during an around-the-world cadet cruise.

[6] After a brief time on half-pay and another gunnery course, Cradock was appointed to the royal yacht Victoria and Albert on 31 August 1894 and published his second book, Wrinkles in Seamanship, or, Help to a Salt Horse.

Before the beginning of the Second Boer War in October 1899, Cradock was briefly transferred to the drill ship President to serve as a transport officer, supervising the loading of troops and supplies for South Africa, and was reduced to half-pay before the end of the year.

[11] He assumed command of the armoured cruiser HMS Bacchante on 20 December as Wake Walker shifted his flag to the ship, and Andromeda returned home.

[14] Off the coast of Sardinia, Cradock saved Prince Vudhijaya Chalermlabha, then serving as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, from drowning in April 1904.

After the Dogger Bank Incident, Wake Walker commanded the cruisers, including Bacchante, shadowing the Russian Baltic Fleet as it steamed through the Mediterranean in October en route to the Far East.

[17] While Cradock's position on the issues dividing the navy are not positively known, a passage from Whispers from the Fleet may offer a clue: "... we require – and quickly too – some strong Imperial body of men who will straightway choke the irrepressible utterings of a certain class of individuals who, to their shame, are endeavouring to break down the complete loyalty and good comradeship that now exists in the service between the officers and the men; and who are also willing to commit the heinous crime of trifling with the sacred laws of naval discipline".

On 1 July Cradock was appointed in command of the Royal Naval Barracks, Portsmouth and promoted to Commodore second class while retaining his duties as aide-de-camp.

When the ocean liner SS Delhi ran aground during the night of 12/13 December near Cape Spartel, Morocco, smashing all of her lifeboats, Cradock was ordered to take London and the armoured cruiser HMS Duke of Edinburgh to rescue the survivors in heavy seas.

It took five days to get all of the passengers and crewmen off the ship, including Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, his wife, the Princess Royal, and the king's granddaughters.

[2] In May Cradock shifted his flag to the predreadnought battleship HMS Hibernia where he took charge of experiments that the RN was conducting with launching aircraft from ships.

[26] On the morning of 6 August, Suffolk spotted Karlsruhe in the process of transferring guns and equipment to the liner SS Kronprinz Wilhelm about 120 nmi (220 km; 140 mi) north of Watling Island.

Karlsruhe's faster speed allowed her to quickly outpace Suffolk, but Bristol caught her that evening and fruitlessly fired at her before the German ship disengaged in the darkness.

[27] Cradock continued northward in obedience to his orders and, after rendezvousing with the newly arrived armoured cruiser HMS Good Hope in Halifax, transferred his flag to her because she was faster than Suffolk.

In response, the Admiralty ordered Cradock southward on 22 August, put him in command of the South American Station the following month, and reinforcing his fleet with the elderly and slow pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Canopus.

He was to detach sufficient force to deal with Dresden and Karlsruhe while concentrating his remaining ships to meet the Germans, using Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands to re-coal.

Cradock's ships fruitlessly searched several different anchorages in the area of Tierra del Fuego, and returned to Port Stanley to re-coal on 3 October.

However, the orders he received from the Admiralty were ambiguous; although they were meant to make him concentrate his ships on the old battleship Canopus, Cradock interpreted them as instructing him to seek and engage the enemy forces.

In this he commented that he did not intend to suffer the fate of Rear-Admiral Ernest Troubridge, who had been court-martialled in August for failing to engage the enemy despite the odds being severely against him, during the pursuit of the German warships Goeben and Breslau.