Admiral Jellicoe takes command of the Grand Fleet

On 4 August 1914, the day Britain entered the war, the main force of the Royal Navy received a new name and a new commander. The existing Home Fleet was renamed the Grand Fleet, and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe took command of it. The fleet was based at Scapa Flow in the Orkneys, where it had moved a few days earlier.

Jellicoe replaced Admiral Sir George Callaghan, who had commanded the fleet in the last years of peace. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, and Admiral John Fisher, however, considered Callaghan unsuited to leading the fleet in wartime. The last-minute change was painful for Callaghan, and Jellicoe himself accepted the appointment reluctantly, out of respect for his predecessor.

The new commander was regarded as one of the ablest officers in the navy. He was a naval gunnery specialist, had previously held senior posts at the Admiralty and knew modern warships well. His flagship was the battleship HMS Iron Duke. The Grand Fleet was the most powerful fleet in the world, and its main task was to keep the German High Seas Fleet in check and maintain the blockade of Germany.

Jellicoe’s responsibility was enormous. Churchill later said that he was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon. The loss of the Grand Fleet would have meant Britain being cut off from supplies, and defeat. Jellicoe commanded the fleet until the end of 1916, including during the greatest naval battle of the war, the Battle of Jutland.