Navy War Council
The Navy War Council was an ad hoc committee of the Royal Navy formed in October, 1909 to perform the basic function of a naval staff, and to formulate naval war plans and study naval strategy.
Background
In May, 1909, the Director of Naval Intelligence, Rear-Admiral The Honourable Alexander E. Bethell, submitted a proposal for a "Navy War Council", comprised of: the First Sea Lord as President; the Director of Naval Intelligence as Vice-President; an "Assistant Director for War"; the President, and the Captain of the Royal Naval War College; the Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord. The head of the Naval Intelligence Department's War Division and the Commander of the Royal Naval War College were to act as Joint Secretaries.[1]
The Council was formed of four permanent ex-officio members, being assigned the following responsibilities;
- President of the War Council and Chief of Staff – First Sea Lord
- Director of Naval Intelligence
- Director of Naval Mobilisation
- Secretary of the Naval War Council – Assistant Secretary to the Admiralty
Other department heads of the Admiralty could be summoned, to act as members of the council as and when their expertise was required.
During Fisher's last three months in office the War Council met four times, and during Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson's tenure as First Sea Lord the council met seven times.[2]
Captain Herbert W. Richmond raged in his diary that the Navy War Council was:
… the most absurd bit of humbug that has ever been produced for a long time [lovely hyperbole - S.H.]. It pretends to be the basis of a General Staff, but its constitution shows that whoever devised it has no idea of what a staff is wanted for, or the particular functions of such a body. The result of the Committee of Enquiry has therefore merely been to produce an absurd anomaly called a War Council, which means nothing. The study of war forms no part of its work. The First Sea Lord remains supreme and imposes his crude strategical ideas on the nation.[3]
Meetings
Taken from the Navy War Council's Minutes.[4]
- 13 October, 1909.
- 20 October, 1909.
- 3 November, 1909.
- 4 November, 1909.
- 1 February, 1910.
- 22 February, 1910.
- 12 April, 1910.
- 22 April, 1910.
- 10 June, 1910.
- 30 November, 1911.
- 1 December, 1911.
Footnotes
- ↑ "Proposals by Director of Naval Intelligence for carrying out the Duties of a General Staff and Re-organisation of the Naval Intelligence Department." 15 May, 1909. The National Archives. ADM 1/8047.
- ↑ Hunt. Sailor-Scholar. p. 21.
- ↑ Diary Entry of 27 October, 1909. National Maritime Museum. Richmond Papers. RIC/1/8. Quoted in Hunt. Sailor-Scholar. p. 21.
- ↑ "Navy War Council: Minutes." The National Archives. ADM 116/3090. ff. 1-8.
Bibliography
- Hunt, Barry D. (1982). Sailor-Scholar: Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond 1871-1946. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. ISBN 0-88920-104-8.
- Template:BibUKNavalStaff
