Difference between revisions of "Ordnance Committee (Royal Navy)"

Revision as of 11:05, 17 June 2014

The Ordnance Committee was constituted in 1881.^[1] It was later amalgamated with the Ordnance Research Board to form the Ordnance Board in 1907.^[2] It was reconstituted under the Ministry of Munitions in 1915.

Remit

In a November, 1906, memorandum the Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes, Captain John R. Jellicoe, described the functions and membership of the Ordnance Committee:

The Master General of the Ordnance at the War Office, or his representative the Director of Artillery, approves all designs after having obtained the concurrence of the Director of Naval Ordnance, on the recommendation of the Ordnance Committee.

The Master General of the Ordnance holds the Ordnance Committee directly responsible for the designs of all guns for His Majesty's Service unless their recommendations have been overruled (paragraph 1 of General Instructions for the guidance of Ordnance Committee).

The Committee is composed of officers of the Army and Navy, with two civilian engineers, the total number of members being eleven.

In addition to the work of the Committee in regard to designs of Naval Ordnance material, the preparation of Range Tables and other ballistic work is undertaken by them, and all experimental work is supervised and reported on by the Committee.

The present Ordnance Committee has for its military members mostly officer who have passed through either the inspection or the experimental branches of the Service, and some of the officers who have served on the Committee have undoubtedly considerable knowledge of scientific gunnery, but purely from the Land Service point of view. The Naval Officers are necessarily selected from those who have recently served at sea, and they naturally have, owing to their rank and the nature of their duties afloat, lost touch to a considerable extent with the details of ordnance work. Their period of service on the Committee is limited to three years, and it is not until towards the end of that service that they can be in any way looked upon as experts, although their experience of requirements afloat is always of considerable utility.^[3]

Presidents

Vice-Presidents

Naval Members

• Captain Cyprian A. G. Bridge, 14 February, 1881.^[18]
• Captain Morgan Singer, 12 April, 1881 – 31 March, 1886.^[19]
• Captain Hector B. Stewart, 1881.^{[Citation needed]}
• Captain Albert B. Jenkings, 6 May, 1884.^[20]
• Captain Tynte F. Hammill, 1 April, 1886 – 14 April, 1887.^[21]
• Captain Herbert W. Dowding, 15 April, 1887.^[22]
• Captain Archibald L. Douglas, 22 August, 1887.^[23]
• Captain Henry J. May, 6 October, 1889.^[24]
• Captain Robert B. Maconochie, 15 August, 1890.^[25]
• Captain Charles C. Drury, 28 January, 1893.^[26]
• Captain Percy M. Scott, 20 November, 1893.^[27]
• Captain Alfred A. C. Parr, 12 May, 1894.^[28]
• Captain Henry J. May May, 1896.^[29]
• Captain John R. Jellicoe, 9 January, 1897.^[30]
• Captain Henry M. T. Tudor, 27 January, 1898.^[31]
• Captain Henry D. Barry, 5 January, 1899.^[32]
• Captain Randolph F. O. Foote, 18 September, 1900.^[33]
• Captain Arthur Barrow, 1 April, 1903.^[34]
• Captain Morgan Singer, 9 June, 1904.^[35]
• Captain Randolph F. O. Foote, 14 July, 1904.^[36]
• Captain Arthur H. Limpus, 1 July, 1905.^[37]
• Captain Richard H. Peirse, 30 October, 1907.^[38]

• Captain Ronald A. Hopwood, 4 December, 1915.^[39]
• Captain Cecil Maxwell-Lefroy, 2 April, 1917.^[40]

Assistant Secretaries

• Major C. H. Ellis, R.A., 1881^{[Citation needed]}
• Commander Henry J. May, 27 September, 1882.^[41]
• Commander Frank C. Younghusband, 1 February, 1886.^[42]
• Commander Barrington H. Chevallier, 15 April, 1887.^[43]
• Commander Sir Henry A. Ogle, Bart., 15 April, 1890.^[44]
• Commander Joseph Honner, 29 August, 1892.^[45]
• Commander Richard B. Farquhar, 24 August, 1896.^[46]
• Commander Arthur W. Waymouth, 17 January, 1899.^[47]
• Commander Douglas L. Dent, 1 September, 1902.^[48]
• Commander Mervyn H. Cobbe, 9 November, 1904.^[49]
• Commander Percival H. Warleigh, 15 July, 1907.^[50]
• Commander (retired) Ivor F. Chichester, 4 December, 1915.^[51]

Footnotes

Bibliography