Royal Naval Officers from War to War,

Transcription

1 Royal Naval Officers from War to War,

2 Also by Mike Farquharson-Roberts A HISTORY OF THE ROYAL NAVY: World War I (2014)

3 Royal Naval Officers from War to War, Mike Farquharson-Roberts National Museum of the Royal Navy, UK

4 Mike Farquharson-Roberts 2015 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.

5 This book is dedicated to Miss Macaulay, Head of History at Dorking County Grammar School

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7 Contents List of Figures and Tables Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations and Acronyms viii x xi Introduction 1 1 The Officers of the Royal Navy Before The Naval Officer and Interwar Society 24 3 Becoming a Naval Officer: Entry, Education and Training 42 4 Personnel Management 67 5 The Officers of the Royal Navy in the 1920s 77 6 Malign Neglect? The Collapse of Executive Officers Morale The Officers Nadir and the Inflection The Ascension: Improving Morale The Ascension: Admiral Chatfield and the Coming War The Naval Officer in World War Two: The Apogee Conclusion 215 Notes 229 Bibliography 258 Index 275 vii

8 List of Figures and Tables Figures 2.1 The Cambell brothers in the 1930s shown as Sub-Lieutenant, Cadet and Lieutenant Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth Frontispiece of the BRNC blue book for January A portion of an officer s Admiralty personal record card An officer s record card showing his grades on his sub lieutenants courses Navy list showing the advance of seniority awarded to cadets on passing out from BRNC Dartmouth BRNC Blue Book showing cadets Admiralty numbers An Officers ledger Two pages of an officers ledger Letter from ADM 116/ Form S 206. Instructions for completion First page of a completed S Second page of a completed S Last page of a completed S Graph to show numbers of executive branch lieutenant commanders Admiral Field Form S206 in use immediately prior to introduction of numerical marking S206 showing numerical marking Admiral Chatfield as a captain. (NMRN) Portion of the record card of an officer Graph showing the probability of a Dartmouth or Special Entry cadet reaching the specific rank of commander, captain or flag officer The first course at the Imperial Defence College 223 viii

9 List of Figures and Tables ix 11.3 Cartoon to illustrate army/navy differences Officers of 829 Naval Air Squadron 227 Tables I.1 Herzberg s factors affecting employee motivation Royal Navy Personnel numbers A Herzberg matrix of the Royal Navy officer corps in mid A Herzberg matrix of the Royal Navy officer corps at the end of Field s term of office A Herzberg matrix of the Royal Navy officer corps on the outbreak of war Ultimate rank reached by year of passing out as cadets/entry as midshipmen and whether BRNC or Special Entry cadet 220

10 Acknowledgments This book was born of a wish to discover how a navy that had apparently performed so far below public expectations, largely due to institutional rigidity, in the First World War, performed so well in the Second World War with many of the same officers. Very early on in my research it became obvious that contrary to widely held beliefs, even in the literature, the Royal Navy had performed exceptionally well before and during the earlier war. Between the wars, however, it entered a descent to a nadir and required significant efforts to rebuild the officer corps before the second war. This book could not have even begun without the help and guidance of Doctor Mike Duffy at Exeter; his influence was subtle but indispensable. My thanks are due to the then Second Sea Lord, Vice-Admiral Sir Adrian Johns, who allowed me unprecedented access to naval personnel records, to the Admiralty Historical Branch and its librarian, Miss Jenny Wraight, and to the National Archive at Kew, which is a resource without equal and with efficiency to match. The National Museum of the Royal Navy has been of invaluable help, not least in making photographs available. Those I interviewed were open and honest, sometimes embarrassingly so (Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Leach telling me that the only useful thing he learnt at Dartmouth was how to lie springs to mind). I have received much help and guidance from many academics both historians and in other disciplines, in particular Dr T.W. Preist (physicist), Dr S. Kilminster (statistician) as well as Professor Andrew Lambert and Dr Laura Rowe, who went much further than just examining me, and the book is better for their guidance. There were many, many more. Despite their best efforts, any errors and omissions are mine. Lastly, Jeannie, who expected to have a bit more help around the house and with our grandchildren when I retired and instead had a husband apparently wedded to a computer and not her. Without her indulgence, this book would never have seen the light of day! x

11 List of Abbreviations and Acronyms 2SLPersRec ADM BRNC AWO/AMO/AFO/CAFO BR Cd/Cmd KR & AI S206 Information derived from Second Sea Lords Personnel records. Admiralty file maintained at The National Archive (TNA) at Kew (previously Public Record Office (PRO)) Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. Admiralty Weekly, Monthly and (Confidential) Fleet Orders Book of Reference UK government Command document Kings Regulations for the Royal Navy and Admiralty Instructions Confidential report on an officer xi