Ships
- HMS Nigeria (60) Captain from 1 May 1944 · Relieved on 12 April 1946
Henry Alexander King commanded Nigeria after Stuart Henry Paton. Uboat.net dates him from 24 June 1944 until 12 April 1946. The Navy List compilation dates him from 1 May 1944, still in the ship in July 1945, and starts his next appointment on 1 April 1946. The command line uses 1 May 1944 and 12 April 1946.
Both pages give his birth as 18 March 1901 and his death as 28 July 1986. Uboat.net places the birth at Clent in Worcestershire and the death in Hampshire, aged 85, and says he is buried at Dartmouth, where he had lived for many years. Unithistories.com places the birth at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and the death in the Portsmouth district of Hampshire. The career note on uboat.net calls him the son of no one. Unithistories names his father as Henry Thomas Firmstone King. He married Megan Williams in 1926. They had two sons, William King, who died in 1971, and James Firmstone King.
The uboat.net career note says he was educated at Winchester College and joined the Navy in 1920 as a special-entry cadet in Cumberland. He passed for lieutenant with five firsts and was awarded the Goodenough Medal for the best examination in gunnery. He specialised in gunnery in 1928. The same note has him as second gunnery officer of Nelson, gunnery officer of Coventry and of Hood, and Experimental Commander of the gunnery school Excellent from 1935. Uboat.net's rank list starts later than that cadet year: sub-lieutenant 15 July 1922, lieutenant 15 August 1923, lieutenant-commander 15 August 1931, commander 30 June 1936, captain 30 June 1942. Unithistories matches from lieutenant onward and dates the retirement 7 July 1951, as uboat.net does. From 7 December 1936 he was head of the Experimental Department at Excellent.
Uboat.net's only other command is the destroyer Kashmir, from 11 September 1939 until 23 May 1941, in Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten's 5th Destroyer Flotilla. The career note spells the flotilla "Flottila." He was mentioned in despatches on 23 December 1939. The career note ties that mention to the sinking of U-35 in November 1939. Unithistories says the mention was for successful actions against enemy submarines. The event page says Kashmir and Kingston were among the destroyers that hunted U-35, that Kingston depth-charged her, and that she was scuttled by her crew in 60°53'N, 02°47'E. Kashmir was bombed and sunk off Crete on 23 May 1941. The DSO is dated 8 January 1942. The career note says it was for his part in that action. Unithistories says it was for the withdrawal from Crete.
The career note then gives him two years at the Admiralty, promotion to captain, and command of Nigeria with what it calls the Far East Fleet, based in Ceylon. Mason's chronology puts the ship in the Eastern Fleet and, from November 1944, in the 5th Cruiser Squadron. The same career sentence says he was involved in the re-capture of the island of Sabang from the Japanese, among other actions during the liberation of Burma, and that he brought Nigeria back to Chatham after VJ Day. Mason's diary for July 1944 records a bombardment of targets at Sabang, Operation Crimson, and does not describe a landing that retook the island. The 1945 Burma entries are the Akyab landing, Cheduba, Ramree, the May interception of evacuation craft, and the July bombardments of Car Nicobar and Nancowry. On 15 August 1945 she sailed with Nelson toward Penang. The chronology does not say he brought her into Chatham on a named day.
Unithistories has him Deputy Director of the Gunnery Division from 23 March 1942, which fits the gap between Kashmir and Nigeria, and then commanding officer of Nigeria from 1 May 1944.
The career note appoints him, immediately after the war, Chief Staff Officer of the British Naval Mission in Washington. Unithistories dates him from 1 April 1946 as Chief Staff Officer on the staff of the Naval Representative at the United Nations, in Saker. He came home in 1948. His last appointment was Director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty in Bath. He retired in 1951. The CBE is 1 January 1952. The career note says it was for distinguished services. Unithistories puts it on the New Year list. He died on 28 July 1986.