Francis Cogswell – Captain, United States Navy

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FRANCIS COGSWELL, 52, NAVAL CAPTAIN, DIES

Commanding Officer of Cruiser Houston Had Many Citations

WASHINGTON, September 22, 1939 – Captain Francis Cogswell, U.S.N., died this morning in the Naval Hospital at Bremerton, Washington, of coronary thrombosis, at the age of 52 years.  He was commanding officer of the cruiser Houston, now at the Puget Sound Navy Yard.  His wife, Mrs. Grace Philips Cogswell, to whom he was married in New York on November 25, 1916, was at his bedside.

In announcing today the death of Captain Cogswell, the Navy Department said that the funeral would be in the National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia.

Captain Cogswell was the son of Rear Admiral James Kelsey Cogswell, U.S.N.  He was born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August 19, 1887, appointed to the United States Naval Academy from New Hampshire in 1903, and his record, made public today by the department, is replete with distinguished service and honors.

He received the Navy Cross “for distinguished service in the line of his profession as commanding officer of the USS Fanning and the USS McDougal, engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of patrolling the waters infested with enemy submarines and mines, in escorting and protecting vitally important convoys of troops and supplies through these waters and in offensive and defensive action, vigorously and unremittingly prosecuted, against all forms of enemy naval activity.”

Captain Cogswell also had received the following medals and decorations:  Officer of the Order of Leopold II by Kind of Belgium, Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by France, for participating in the rescue of survivors of the French cruiser Duppetit-Thouars, Mexican Service Medal, USS Florida, 1914, and Victory Medal, destroyer class, World War.

NOTE: According to relatives, the Captain’s wife was first married to Lieutenant Henry Burnet Post, United States Army Air Service, who was killed in an aircraft accident in 1914 and buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  After the Captain died, she never apparently remarried and lived until 1971 when she joined the Captain in Arlington National Cemetery.

Francis Cogswell’s wife, Grace Phillips Cogswell, was born in New York City in 1887. She served in the U.S. Foreign Service and later in the Central Intelligence Agency. Grace Cogswell retired in 1954.

Cogswell, Francis
Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy
Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Fanning & U.S.S. McDougal
Date Of Action: World War I

Citation

The Navy Cross is awarded to Lieutenant Commander Francis Cogswell, U.S. Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as commanding officer of the U.S.S. Fanning and the U.S.S. McDougal, engaged in the important, exacting and hazardous duty of patrolling the waters infested with enemy submarines and mines, in escorting and protecting vitally important convoys of troops and supplies through these waters, and in offensive and defensive action, vigorously and unremittingly prosecuted against all forms of enemy naval activity.

COGSWELL, FRANCIS

  • CAPT US NAVY
  • DATE OF DEATH: 09/22/1934
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 6  SITE 8709
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

COGSWELL, GRACE P WIDOW OF FRANCIS

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 06/07/1887
  • DATE OF DEATH: 12/21/1971
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 6  SITE 8709 NH
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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