William Sowden Sims papers (RLC.Ms.530)

Biographical note

William Sowden Sims (1858-1936) was born to American parents in Port Hope, Ontario, on October 15, 1858. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1880 and went on to become a respected admiral in the Navy. Sims served as a naval aide to President Theodore Roosevelt from 1908-1909 and later served as the president of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1917 and 1919-1922. During World War I (1914-1918), Sims served as the commanding officer for all U.S. naval forces in European waters from 1917-1919. His account of the U.S. naval effort during that war, The Victory at sea, earned him the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1921. Admiral William Sowden Sims died on September 28, 1936 in Boston, Massachusetts.