Reginald Drax
Toronto Daily Star, October 3 1932
Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (1880-1967), as he was eventually known, was born with the surname of Plunkett. His mother added the additional surnames by royal licence in 1905 and 1906, and he assumed them also. His older brother, born Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, became Lord Dunsany in 1899, and was a writer, dramatist, and a pistol and chess champion in Ireland. The brothers apparently became estranged in about 1916 for reasons that are not clear.
Admiral Drax (his last surname was the most used one) was the English representative of an Anglo-French delegation sent to Moscow in August 1939 to negotiate an alliance with the USSR. However, the delegation was sent on a slow boat to Leningrad, and Drax did not have the authority to make any decisions without consulting his government, so the Soviets did not take the delegation seriously.
Drax was a friend of Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books. Fleming's novel Moonraker has a character named Sir Hugo Drax as a tribute to the admiral.
Created October 3, 2025.