Admirals of the British Navy Part 1

Admirals of the British Navy.

by Francis Dodd.

INTRODUCTION

If the English are singularly incurious about their Navy, that att.i.tude must not be thought to imply neglect. On the contrary, it is a blend of admiration, respect, and, above all, confidence, induced very largely by the Navy itself. For so long has the Navy minded its own silent business that we--otherwise so inquisitive a people--have come to look upon it as beyond examination and (normally too eager to cut open the drum and explore its resources) trustfully to leave it to its own devices, conscious that those devices are wholly in our own interests. As Matthew Arnold said in his sonnet to Shakespeare:

_Others abide our question, thou art free--_

so do we address the Navy. For, although it baffles curiosity and ends by eliminating it, it is only to subst.i.tute faith. We do not take for granted all the things that we cannot understand: sometimes, indeed, we deny them; but we are satisfied to take for granted the Navy. We know that it is there. Where "there" is we may have no notion; by "there" we mean probably everywhere. The Navy is not only there, the Navy is everywhere, and therefore all's well. That is our simple creed.

A further cause for this quiet and unusual acceptivity is to be found in the medium in which the Navy works--the sea itself. The sea has ever been a barrier to investigation, and the Navy and the sea are one.

Public opinion is land-made, and landsmen have neither time nor inclination to cope with the riddles of the ocean, which to most of us is vague and inimical, the home of risks and discomforts which it is wiser to avoid. Well content to consider her, from a safe distance, as a Sphinx, we are very happy that to others has fallen the perilous lot of patrolling her and very full of grat.i.tude for their courage and success.

If the Army, on the contrary, is so much under the microscope, it is largely because it has few or no mysteries. We know the rules. Armies are made up of men like ourselves (only better). They advance as we do, by putting one foot before another, on the solid earth. Their movements are followable, even if we cannot always understand them; daily bulletins are printed in the public Press. But the Navy keeps its secrets. Not only have we no notion where it is, but we should be little the wiser as to its inner purposes if, scanning the illimitable and capricious waves, it should be our fortune to descry here and there a flotilla of its dark grey hulls. Even in harbour most men pointing out a cruiser to their children say "That's a dreadnought"--a state of confusion bred and fostered by the strange, dark, dangerous element in which the Navy has its being.

So much for the causes of our odd willingness to forego one of the chief privileges of British birthright, which is to criticise, even to belittling, all that is ours. But there is justification, too, as the state of the sea to-day testifies. Thanks to the Navy there is at this moment hardly an enemy s.h.i.+p at large on the surface of the waters. The Kaiser's darling ironclads are idle as painted s.h.i.+ps upon a painted ocean: not even an ocean, a ca.n.a.l. Our troops in millions have crossed to the Continent. We have enough to eat.

By what wonders of efficiency and discipline, machinery and co-ordination, this result has been brought about we neither know nor are concerned to enquire. Enough that it is. But when it comes to _personnel_, curiosity is legitimate; and this collection of portraits and brief biographies has been prepared in the belief that very many of those whose lives have been rendered secure by these efforts of the Navy would like to see what manner of men are in control of our safeguards.

This is the heyday of the picture, and here are the pictures of our leading sailors--the commanders who stand between us and the foe and keep the foe at bay.

Charles Lamb (who was less of a sea-dog even than most men) confessed in old age that he once sat to an artist friend for the portraits of sixteen British Admirals. Mr. Dodd (even could a sitter of such notable companionableness be now found) would have forced himself to dispense with the fun of using him, for verisimilitude's sake, because all these heads have been drawn from life and are reproduced as nearly as possible in the colours of life. Looking over the forty and more Naval heroes whom he has limned, one is struck by a generic likeness which is deeper than such superficial similarity as the service beard can confer. Most of the Admirals look like Admirals--and is there a better thing to be?

Certainly there is no better word. Not only have their ability and courage and character united to lift them to high position and authority; but here, again, we discern the subtle and penetrating influence of the sea, a mistress who will allow no relaxation of vigilance or toil, so swiftly and dangerously changeable can she be.

Hence the keen eyes, the level gaze, of all who would understand and cope with her, and noticeably of all this gallant company.

In the present work the emphasis is laid rather upon the ill.u.s.trations than the letterpress. It is a gallery of portraits rather than a series of biographies such as "The Lives of the British Admirals," which was written by Dr. John Campbell, and, with periodical additions, so long held the field. The time for such biographies happily is not yet. But when it comes may there be some victories (already, of course, there are three or four) to record as decisive and as n.o.ble as those in Campbell's volumes!

E. V. LUCAS.

I

ADMIRAL SIR JOHN R. JELLICOE, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O.

ADMIRAL SIR JOHN RUSHWORTH JELLICOE, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., was born on December 5th, 1859. He was educated at Rottingdean, and entered the Navy in 1872, becoming in 1880 a Lieutenant (three First Cla.s.s Certificates).

As a young officer he specialised in Gunnery.

During the Egyptian War, as Lieutenant of the "Agincourt," he gained the Egyptian Medal and Khedive's Bronze Star. In 1883 he received a special 80 prize at the Royal Naval College.

In May, 1886, Lieutenant Jellicoe was awarded the Board of Trade Silver Medal for having commanded a gig, manned by volunteers, which set out to rescue the crew of a steamer stranded on a sandbank near Gibraltar. A heavy sea was running and the boat capsized, but the crew, being provided with cork jackets, managed to reach the sh.o.r.e in safety.

Lieutenant Jellicoe was a.s.sistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance from 1888 to 1891, on June 30th of which year he became a Commander, and was serving in the "Victoria" when she foundered off Tripoli after collision with the "Camperdown" on June 27th, 1893. At the time of the catastrophe Commander Jellicoe was suffering from Mediterranean fever. He was promoted to Captain on January 1st, 1897. During the Boxer outbreak in 1900 he was Flag-Captain in the "Centurion," and took part in Admiral Sir E. H. Seymour's International Expedition to relieve the Pekin Legations. In this Expedition he acted as Chief Staff Officer, was wounded, and afterwards received the C.B. for his services.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ADMIRAL SIR JOHN R. JELLICOE]

He was Naval a.s.sistant to the Controller of the Navy from February, 1902, to August, 1903; Captain of the "Drake" from August, 1903, to January, 1905; and Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes from 1905 to August, 1907. In the previous March he had been made Aide-de-Camp to the King, a post which he held until February 8th, 1907, when he became an Admiral. From August, 1907, to August, 1908, he was Rear-Admiral in the Atlantic Fleet, becoming Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy at the end of 1908. He commanded the Atlantic Fleet in 1910, with the rank of Acting Vice-Admiral, and on the occasion of King George V.'s Coronation he was made a K.C.B. In 1911 he commanded the Second Division of the Home Fleet, becoming a Vice-Admiral on September 18th of that year. On December 9th, 1912, he was appointed Second Sea Lord.

On the outbreak of war on August 4th, 1914, he was given Chief Command of the Grand Fleet, with the acting rank of Admiral. He was in supreme command at the Battle of Jutland.

In recognition of his services during the war, he received the G.C.B. on February 8th, 1915, and an Order in Council, dated November 10th, 1914, laid down that "Admiral Jellicoe on his promotion to the rank of Admiral is to retain seniority as Admiral of August 4th, 1914, while holding his present command."

On May 31st, 1916, Admiral Jellicoe received the Order of Merit.

On December 4th, 1916, he became First Sea Lord, the t.i.tle "Chief of Naval Staff" being added on May 31st, 1917.

Admiral Jellicoe holds the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the Russian Order of St. George (Third Cla.s.s), the Order of the First Cla.s.s of the Rising Sun with Paulounia, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold, also the French and Belgian Croix de Guerre and the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Savoy.

No biographical notice of Sir John Jellicoe would be complete without a mention of his father, who was, in his day, a well-known and distinguished Captain in the Merchant Service. It is pleasant to remember that Captain Jellicoe lived to see his son in command of the Grand Fleet during the greatest war in history. This close connection between the two branches of sea service is also peculiarly happy and appropriate. Admiral Patton, a great-grandfather on his mother's side, was Second Sea Lord during the Trafalgar campaign.

II

ADMIRAL SIR CECIL BURNEY, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.

ADMIRAL SIR CECIL BURNEY, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., was born in 1858 and received his education at the Royal Naval Academy, Gosport; he served as a Lieutenant of the "Carysfoot" during the Egyptian war, and also in the Naval and military operations near Suakin in the Eastern Soudan. For these services he received the Egyptian Medal, Khedive's Bronze Star and Suakin Clasp.

As a Lieutenant of the "Hecate" Admiral Burney performed a singularly gallant action. His s.h.i.+p having gone outside Plymouth Breakwater for gun trials, a carpenter's mate engaged in some work on the outside of a turret slipped overboard, striking his head as he fell. Lieutenant Burney and Mr. Berridge, gunner, at once plunged to the rescue and succeeded in supporting the man till one of the boats, which unfortunately were stowed inboard owing to gun practice, could be got ready to go to their a.s.sistance.

In 1906-7 Admiral Burney was Aide-de-Camp to King Edward VII. He was Rear-Admiral of Plymouth Home Fleet, 1909-10, a member of the Admiralty Submarine Committee, 1910-11; Rear-Admiral Commanding Fifth Cruiser Squadron, February, 1911; Acting Vice-Admiral Commanding Third Battle Squadron (formerly Atlantic Fleet), in December of the same year and Vice-Admiral in September, 1912.

In April, 1913, he became second in command in the Mediterranean and Senior Officer of the International Squadron ordered to blockade the coast of Montenegro, and in May of the same year he was appointed Chief to the Commission to administer the affairs of Scutari on behalf of the Powers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ADMIRAL SIR CECIL BURNEY]

Vice-Admiral Burney received the K.C.B. on King George's Birthday in 1913, and the K.C.M.G. in October of the same year, in which he also received the command of the Second and Third Fleets.

At the Battle of Jutland he was second in command of the Grand Fleet and was mentioned in despatches. He became a G.C.M.G. and Admiral in 1916, being decorated Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour for his war services in the same year. In 1916 he was also appointed Second Sea Lord of the Admiralty. He also holds the Order of St. Vladimir (Second Cla.s.s) with swords, the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Maurice and St.

Lazarus, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

Admiral Burney retired from the post of Second Sea Lord in August, 1917, and in October was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the East Coast of Scotland in succession to the late Admiral Sir Frederick Hamilton.

III

ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES EDWARD MADDEN, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O.

ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES EDWARD MADDEN, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O., became a mids.h.i.+pman in October, 1877. As an Acting Sub-Lieutenant of H.M.S.

"Ruby," he served in the Egyptian War of 1882 and received the Egyptian Medal and the Khedive's Bronze Star. He became a Lieutenant on July 27th, 1884.