Frederick Joseph Rutland, (21 October 1886 – 28 January 1949) was a British pioneer of
naval aviation
Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of Military aviation, military air power by Navy, navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases.
It often involves ''navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use.
Seab ...
. A decorated pilot in the First World War, he earned the nickname "Rutland of Jutland" for his exploits at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
He later worked for the Japanese and was interned by the British authorities during the Second World War.
Rutland killed himself in 1949.
"Rutland of Jutland"
Rutland joined the Royal Navy as a
boy seaman
A boy seaman (plural boy seamen) is a boy who serves as seaman or is trained for such service.
Royal Navy
In the British Royal Navy, where there was a need to recruit enough hands to man the vast fleet of the British Empire, extensive regulati ...
in 1901.
He was graded as
Flight Sub-Lieutenant
Flying officer (Fg Offr or F/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence.
Flying officer is immediately ...
in the
Royal Naval Air Service
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...
(RNAS) in December 1914,
awarded his
aviator's certificate by the
Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain, being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910.
History
The Aero Club was foun ...
on 26 January 1915 after training at
Eastchurch
Eastchurch is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Sheppey, in the English county of Kent, two miles east of Minster, Swale, Minster. The village website claims the area has "a history steeped in stories of piracy and smugglers".
Aviation ...
and promoted to Lieutenant on 7 January 1916.
At Jutland he served as a pilot on the
seaplane tender
A seaplane tender is a boat or ship that supports the operation of seaplanes. Some of these vessels, known as seaplane carriers, could not only carry seaplanes but also provided all the facilities needed for their operation; these ships are rega ...
HMS ''Engadine''. On 30 May 1916, ''Engadine'' carried two
Short Type 184
The Short Admiralty Type 184, often called the Short 225 after the power rating of the engine first fitted, was a British two-seat reconnaissance, bombing and torpedo carrying folding-wing seaplane designed by Horace Short of Short Brothers. It ...
and two
Sopwith Baby
The Sopwith Baby is a British single-seat floatplane that was operated by the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) from 1915.
Development and design
The Baby (also known as the Admiralty 8200 Type) was a development of the two-seat Sopwith Tabloid, ...
floatplanes and was attached to the 3rd Light Cruiser Squadron. ''Engadine'' accompanied the cruisers when the Battlecruiser Fleet sortied from Rosyth that evening to intercept the German High Seas Fleet. Beatty ordered ''Engadine'' to make a search to the north-northeast. At 15:07 Rutland took off in his Type 184 and his
observer
An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment.
Observer may also refer to:
Fiction
* ''Observer'' (novel), a 2023 science fiction novel by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress
* ''Observer'' (video game), a cyberpunk horr ...
, Assistant Paymaster George Stanley Trewin, signalled ''Engadine'' that they had spotted three German
cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several operational roles from search-and-destroy to ocean escort to sea ...
s and five
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
s at 15:30.
This was the first time that a heavier-than-air aircraft had carried out a reconnaissance of an enemy fleet in action. After a few other spot reports were transmitted, the aircraft's fuel line ruptured around 15:36 and Rutland was forced to put his aircraft down. He was able to repair it and signalled that he was ready to take off again, but he was ordered to
taxi
A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...
to the carrier on the surface. The aircraft reached the ship at 15:47 and it was hoisted aboard by 16:04. ''Engadine'' attempted to relay the spot reports to Beatty's
flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of navy, naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically ...
and the flagship of the
5th Battle Squadron
The 5th Battle Squadron was a squadron of the British Royal Navy consisting of battleships. The 5th Battle Squadron was initially part of the Royal Navy's Second Fleet. During the First World War, the Home Fleet was renamed the Grand Fleet.
His ...
, but was unsuccessful.
Rutland was awarded the
Distinguished Service Cross The Distinguished Service Cross (D.S.C.) is a military decoration for courage. Different versions exist for different countries.
*Distinguished Service Cross (Australia)
*Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
*Distinguished Service Cross (U ...
(DSC) "for his gallantry and persistence in flying within close distance of the enemy light cruisers".
He received a
Bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
** Chocolate bar
* Protein bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...
to his DSC in 1917 for "services on patrol duties and submarine searching in home waters".

During the Battle of Jutland, the
armoured cruiser
The armored cruiser was a type of warship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was designed like other types of cruisers to operate as a long-range, independent warship, capable of defeating any ship apart from a pre-dreadnought battles ...
HMS ''Warrior'' had been crippled by numerous hits by German battleships. At 19:45 ''Engadine'' attempted to take her in tow, but the jammed rudder prevented that until it was trained amidships. Early the following morning ''Warrior''s progressive flooding had worsened and she was sinking. The captain ordered his ship abandoned after ''Engadine'' came alongside to take the crew off at 08:00. About 675 officers and men successfully made it to the much smaller ''Engadine''. Among these were about 30 seriously wounded men who were transferred across in their stretchers; one man fell from his stretcher between the ships, but, against orders, Rutland dived overboard with a bowline to rescue him. For his bravery he was awarded the
Albert Medal in Gold.
Rutland's Short Type 184, aircraft number 8359, was presented to the
Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...
in 1917, where it was damaged in a German air raid in 1940. The unrestored forward section of the fuselage is currently on loan from IWM to
Fleet Air Arm Museum
The Fleet Air Arm Museum is devoted to the history of British naval aviation. It has an extensive collection of military and civilian aircraft, aero engines, models of aircraft and Royal Navy ships (especially aircraft carriers), and paintings ...
where it is on display to the public.
On 28 June 1917, Rutland, by now a
Flight Commander
A flight commander is the leader of a constituent portion of an aerial squadron in aerial operations, often into combat. That constituent portion is known as a flight, and usually contains six or fewer aircraft, with three or four being a common ...
, took off in a
Sopwith Pup
The Sopwith Pup is a British single-seater biplane fighter aircraft built by the Sopwith Aviation Company. It entered service with the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Flying Corps in the autumn of 1916. With pleasant flying characteristi ...
from a
flying-off platform
The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...
mounted on the roof of one of the gun turrets of the
light cruiser
A light cruiser is a type of small or medium-sized warship. The term is a shortening of the phrase "light armored cruiser", describing a small ship that carried armor in the same way as an armored cruiser: a protective belt and deck. Prior to thi ...
HMS ''Yarmouth'', the first such successful launch of an aircraft in history.
He did more experiments on the battlecruiser
HMS ''Repulse''. It was the first capital ship fitted with a
flying-off platform
The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...
when an experimental one was fitted on 'B' turret in the autumn of 1917. On 1 October 2017, Rutland, now a
Squadron Leader
Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr or S/L) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence.
Squadron leader is immediatel ...
, took off in a Sopwith Pup. Another platform was built on 'Y' turret and Rutland successfully took off from it on 8 October 1917.
Rutland transferred to the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
when it was formed in April 1918. He was appointed to command the RAF unit on the carrier
HMS ''Eagle'' in September 1921. He resigned his commission in 1923.
Post-First World War and espionage
Material released by
The National Archives
National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention.
Conceptual development
From the Middle Ages i ...
on 10 November 2000 revealed that Rutland had come to the notice of
MI5
MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
in 1922 when he decided to resign from the RAF. The agency received what it called "reliable information" from a "very delicate source" that the Japanese had secret talks with Rutland. MI5 noted that Rutland possessed "unique knowledge of aircraft carriers and deck landings."
In 1924, Rutland was divorced on the ground of adultery. He had been named as a
co-respondent
In English law, a co-respondent is, in general, a respondent to a petition, or other legal proceeding, along with another or others, or a person called upon to answer in some other way. 7.4.19
Divorce
More particularly, since the Matrimonial Cau ...
in a divorce case in 1923.
After he left the RAF, Rutland moved to Japan where he was employed helping the
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...
learn about naval aviation. In 1928, he moved back to the UK. A representative of the Japanese Navy met Rutland in London and recruited him to be an agent in Los Angeles.
Rutland started a cover business in Los Angeles and another in
Honolulu
Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...
.
Later intercepts of Japanese communications showed that Tokyo had paid Rutland to set up a "small agency in Hawaii". He had subsequently provided technical details which helped the Japanese design aircraft carriers,
in the years before the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...
.
This was discovered when Japan's cyphers were broken.
FBI files released in 2017 contain numerous references to Rutland's espionage work for the Japanese Navy, as well as confirmation that he had become a double agent, helping the US Navy. In Rutland's work for the US Navy, he fed information on Japanese plans and attempted to set up a process to alert the US about the timing of the coming Japanese attack.
MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
discovered that Rutland had come to the attention of the US authorities. He returned to Britain on 5 October 1941 and on 16 December 1941 he was
interned
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
under
Defence Regulation 18B
Defence Regulation 18B, often referred to as simply 18B, was one of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during and before the Second World War. The complete name for the rule was Regulation 18B of the Defence (General) Regula ...
"by reason of alleged hostile associations".
This internment was a special wartime program where those detained were jailed with no trial. Some of his former Royal Navy colleagues demanded his release, saying there was no proof of his doing anything illegal in Britain, and that both MI5 and the Americans blundered by not having Rutland help them prevent the Japanese attack. Rutland was released from custody in December 1943.
Rutland killed himself in 1949.
Biography
Rutland is the subject of ''Beverly Hills Spy,'' a biography by
Ronald Drabkin, published by Harper Collins in February 2024.
See also
*
Collaboration with Imperial Japan
Before and during World War II, the Empire of Japan created a number of List of World War II puppet states, puppet states that played a noticeable role in the war by collaborating with Imperial Japan. With promises of "Asia for the Asiatics" coo ...
*
Itaru Tachibana
was a Japanese spy active in the United States.
USC PhD student Pedro Loureiro wrote that Tachibana's arrest by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) "became the most publicized and sensational Japanese espionage case in the United ...
*
Patrick Stanley Vaughan Heenan
*
William Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill
William Francis Forbes-Sempill, 19th Lord Sempill, , (24 September 1893 – 30 December 1965) was a Peerage of Scotland, Scottish peer and record-breaking aviator, air pioneer, who was later shown to have passed secret information to the Imperial ...
*
Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory
The Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is an unproven conspiracy theory alleging that U.S. government officials had advance knowledge of Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Starting from shortly after the attack, there has been ...
* Japanese spy in Hawaii,
Takeo Yoshikawa
* German spy in Hawaii,
Kuehn Family
Bibliography
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutland, Frederick
1886 births
1949 suicides
1949 deaths
British collaborators with Imperial Japan
British military personnel who died by suicide
Royal Naval Air Service aviators
Royal Air Force squadron leaders
Royal Navy officers of World War I
Recipients of the Albert Medal (lifesaving)
People interned in the Isle of Man during World War II
People detained under Defence Regulation 18B
Suicides by gas
Suicides in the United Kingdom
People from Weymouth, Dorset
World War II spies for Japan