Admiral Sir Reginald Hugh Spencer Bacon, KCB, KCVO, DSO (6 September 1863 – 9 June 1947)[1] was an officer in the Royal Navy noted for his technical abilities.

He had spent several years on the staff of HMS Vernon, Britain's main torpedo school, and his character was dominated by a pronounced flair for things mechanical.

Later in his career Bacon made a significant contribution to the design of the revolutionary all-big-gun battleship Dreadnought, developed siege guns for the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 and mastered the technical complexities required to implement his proposal for a North Sea Mine Barrage.

[3] Historian Mike Dash observes that while "there is no doubt that [his] mastery of the technology with which he dealt reinforced the independence of the submarine branch, he was a remote and stubborn centraliser who rarely admitted he needed help from anybody".

To Maurice Hankey, during the war, Bacon was "the one officer with offensive spirit";[9] to the notoriously offensive-minded Reginald Tyrwhitt, commander of the Harwich Force, he was a worse enemy than the Germans, unwilling to take risks and "our bugbear... the Streaky One has obsessed everyone at the Admiralty and does exactly what he pleases with them... You will understand me when I say he is not a white man.

[11] Bacon was acutely aware of the early shortcomings of underwater craft and "particularly emphasised" that he did not "commend rashness, in fact my life is spent in preaching caution...

A1, developed by Bacon in conjunction with the naval architects of Messrs Vickers, Sons & Maxim, added a conning tower and a periscope to the pioneering design of the Irish-born American inventor John P. Holland, making her significantly more seaworthy and a more potent attacking threat.

[16] The Army was unimpressed by its lack of range and didn't adopt the weapon, but Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, formed the Howitzer Brigade of the Royal Marine Artillery with the twelve guns.

3) to be transported, and a few days later was in Paris ready to start for the Dardanelles, when he was recalled to London by Churchill and made Commander-in-Chief, Dover, replacing Rear-Admiral Horace Hood.

[23] In his book 'Room 40: British Naval Intelligence, 1914–1918,' Patrick Beesly was not complimentary of Bacon suggesting that his brilliance may have been marred by his fixation on a correct way of doing things, and of 'being convinced that he was the only man in the regiment who was marching in step.'

After repeated refusals to illuminate the barrage at night, Bacon was instructed to do so by Rosslyn Wemyss following his replacement of Sir John Jellicoe as First Sea Lord.

The discovery and destruction of a U-boat transiting the barrage took place the next night, and Bacon was sacked by Eric Campbell Geddes from command of the Dover Patrol, replaced by Roger Keyes, shortly thereafter.