Born in Duncannon , Ireland , he was the son of British army captain Francis Charles Cromie of the Hampshire Regiment ( later Consul-General in Dakar , Senegal ) . His mother was the daughter of a Police Constable in Pembrokeshire . Educated at Haverfordwest Grammar School in Wales and at the Britannia Royal Naval College where he became a cadet-in-lay in 1898 ; he joined HMS Repulse on passing out , and in 1900 as a midshipman of HMS Barfleur took part in the Seymour Expedition to China , for which he received the China War Medal with Peking clasp
China War Medal
China War Medal (1900)
Francis Cromie