HARRY E. RUMSEY, ENS, USN
Harry Rumsey '86
Harry Edgerton Rumsey was admitted to the Naval Academy from Wyoming on September 28, 1882 at age 15 years 7 months.
Photographs
Photograph from the collection of the Nimitz Library at the US Naval Academy.
Loss
Harry was lost on September 26, 1890, when he drowned near Yokohama, Japan; he was stationed aboard the steam sloop Swatara.
Other Information
He was survived by his mother and an aunt; he is buried in Indiana. His father, Captain Henry B. Rumsey, USN (USNA 1863), had served during the Civil War and later was a businessman in Fort Laramie, Wyoming. He died three years before Harry while rescuing a girl from a hotel fire in Buffalo, New York.
Harry was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and his officer's sword is at that city's historical society.
Career
From the Naval History and Heritage Command:
Naval Cadet, 28 September, 1882. Graduated 10 June, 1886. Ensign, 1 July, 1888. Drowned 26 September, 1890.
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.
February 1887
January 1888
January 1889
January 1890
January 1891
Harry is one of 2 members of the Class of 1886 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
