Ships
- HMS Emerald (D66) Captain from 18 June 1940 · Relieved on 25 August 1942
Francis Cyril Flynn had the light cruiser Emerald from 18 June 1940 until 25 August 1942. He was in command when Japan entered the war, while she was on the East Indies Station, and he still had her when she sailed with Eastern Fleet Force A at the end of March 1942.
He was born on 13 August 1894 at Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire. Unithistories.com records that he died on 24 April 1975 at Liss, Hampshire. Uboat.net gives the death only as June 1975, at Petersfield. The April date is the one used.
He entered the Royal Navy on 15 May 1907. Unithistories lists him as midshipman on 15 January 1912, acting sub-lieutenant on 15 May 1914, sub-lieutenant on 15 February 1915, lieutenant on 15 March 1916, lieutenant-commander on 15 March 1924, commander on 31 December 1929, and captain on 31 December 1937. Uboat.net's rank table matches those dates and adds that he was a cadet from 15 May 1907. He retired on 8 January 1947. Unithistories also prints a commodore, 2nd class, dated 15 March 1945 with a question mark on the page.
Unithistories gives him the Insect-class gunboat Tarantula from 22 April 1938 into February 1940, and then Tamar, the Royal Navy base at Hong Kong, from 1 February 1940 into May 1940. The same page starts him in Emerald on 1 June 1940. Uboat.net, which is the list that dates every relief, starts him on 18 June 1940, the day Augustus Agar left, and ends him on 25 August 1942. The command line follows uboat.net.
Mason's chronology has Emerald in the East Indies through 1941, including the 15 June 1941 collision with Dauntless in the Malacca Straits, fourteen killed or missing and five injured, and the repair at Singapore. In January 1942 she escorted military convoys toward Singapore and on 16 January embarked Admiral Layton at Batavia for Trincomalee. On 12 March she rescued nine survivors of Lakshima Govinda. From 30 March she was with Force A south of Ceylon. Flynn left in August 1942, while she was still in the Indian Ocean trade-defence period that followed the move of the Eastern Fleet to East Africa. Unithistories then has him at the Admiralty, in President, from August 1942 into January 1945, and as Naval Officer-in-Charge, Trincomalee, in Highflyer, from 15 March 1945 into July 1945.
He retired on 8 January 1947. The fetched pages do not record a later appointment. He died on 24 April 1975 at Liss.