GRATTAN C. DICHMAN, CDR, USN

Grattan Dichman '07

Date of birth: December 12, 1885

Date of death: October 16, 1924

Age: 38

Lucky Bag

From the 1907 Lucky Bag:

GRATTAN COLLEY DICHMAN

Bernita, Georgia

"Dich"

A lank Southerner with a voice as soft as his legs are long. Has a society manner of reciting which takes with the instructors and makes mere small talk of scientific controversies. A dangerous man with anything from a broad-sword to a hat-pin.

Fusses occasionally, bluffs oftener, and smiles sweetly at all times. Wonders whether he will be unsat, but takes things as they come, blasé. Delights in long chats with the Dagoes and rolls the French "r" with a trill that puts a bosn's pipe to shame.

Fencing Team (4, 3,2); Captain (2); Fencing Star (3); Buzzard (2).

GRATTAN COLLEY DICHMAN

Bernita, Georgia

"Dich"

A lank Southerner with a voice as soft as his legs are long. Has a society manner of reciting which takes with the instructors and makes mere small talk of scientific controversies. A dangerous man with anything from a broad-sword to a hat-pin.

Fusses occasionally, bluffs oftener, and smiles sweetly at all times. Wonders whether he will be unsat, but takes things as they come, blasé. Delights in long chats with the Dagoes and rolls the French "r" with a trill that puts a bosn's pipe to shame.

Fencing Team (4, 3,2); Captain (2); Fencing Star (3); Buzzard (2).

Loss

Grattan was lost on October 16, 1924 when his aircraft crashed near San Diego, California.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

On March 29, 1905, Grattan along with classmates Harry G. Knox and Alexander Sharp, Jr., were awarded the star of the Navy Athletic Association for defeating the West Point fencing team. The awards came after the team won first honors at the intercollegiate fencing tournament in New York City.
In January 1907, the fencing team won against naval academy graduates from the U. S. steamship Virginia. On February 23, Grattan, captain of the navy fencing team, won all three of his bouts with the University of Pennsylvania fencers. The navy won the annual contest 6 bouts to 3.
In September 1909, Grattan gave a luncheon on board the South Dakota for his mother, his sister and Miss Marie Louise Bryant. The ship sailed the next day with the Pacific Fleet.
On November 7, 1914, Grattan hosted a dinner at the Country Club in Norfolk, Virginia. Among the guests was his future bride, Louise Braxton Robinson.
In October 1915, Grattan was selected for training in aeronautics in a class on the cruiser North Carolina at Pensacola.
The next October 11, Grattan married Louise in the Emmanuel Protestant Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. Grattan was an aeronautic instructor, and the couple honeymooned in the Bermuda Islands.
On June 8, 1917, Grattan and 100 expert and prospective naval aviators arrived in France to help her navy meet the submarine peril off the French coast. Seaplanes were able to locate submarines and also bombard the German submarine bases along the coast of Belgium. With Grattan was Lt. (jg) Godfrey de C. Chevalier ('10).
Grattan's daughter Louise was born on June 23, 1917, in Norfolk. In March 1919, the family lived at “Sea Pines,” Virginia Beach. Grattan's daughter Elizabeth was born in 1922. She married Bevin Smith, and they lived in Princeton, New Jersey. Daughter Louise married Captain Herbert J. Brown, U. S. Army.
Grattan's father resigned from the Navy after the Civil War and was later appointed Minister to the United States of Colombia.

He became naval aviator #30 in 1916 and was on the staff of Commander, Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet when he was killed.

As a LCDR, he was the commissioning commanding officer of USS Clemson (Destroyer No. 186) on December 29, 1919; he was relieved sometime in 1920.

He was survived by his wife; they are both buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Hometown

The Lucky Bag and Naval Academy Registers from the period give Grattan's hometown as Bernita, Georgia; it is also given as his hometown in a February 1906 newspaper article. This town — or more likely a few farms — ceased to exist sometime before the 1950s. It was in Twiggs County, slightly southwest of Dry Branch.

Grattan was born in Manhattan, New York, and his family lived in New York in the 1880s and 1900s. The first page of his "Record of Naval Cadet" gives his residence as "100 Broadway, New York."

From researcher Kathy Franz: "He was appointed by Congressman Elijah B. Lewis, Montezuma, Macon County, Georgia on 7/6/1903."

Seems likely that he was a "resident" of Georgia just long enough to obtain a congressional appointment.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.