Admiralty halts the dispersal of the fleet

On Sunday 26 July 1914, in the almost empty building of the Admiralty in London, one of the most important decisions of that summer for the British navy was taken. The First Sea Lord, Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg, ordered that the ships of the First Fleet should remain concentrated at Portland instead of dispersing to their home ports. The ships of the Second Fleet, for their part, were to wait at their bases close to their crews.

The background to this decision went back several months. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, had dropped the annual fleet manoeuvres in 1914, mainly to save money. In their place a test mobilisation was held, which made it possible to man the reserve ships fully as well. In July a great review of the fleet took place at Spithead, attended by King George V. Once it was over, the ships were due to disperse and the reservists to go home.

On 26 July increasingly alarming news was reaching London. Austria-Hungary had rejected Serbia’s reply to the ultimatum and broken off diplomatic relations with it. Churchill was spending the weekend with his family at the seaside town of Cromer, so Battenberg took the decision on his own. On returning to London, Churchill fully endorsed it.

The importance of this step became clear in the days that followed. On 28 July the First Fleet was ordered to move to its war base at Scapa Flow in Orkney, from where it could control the North Sea and bar the way to the German High Seas Fleet; it sailed from Portland the following day. When Great Britain entered the war at the beginning of August, the Royal Navy was already in position, and the First Fleet had been formed into the Grand Fleet.

Battenberg’s own fate shows how quickly the wartime mood changed. Born in Graz in Austria and of German descent, the admiral, despite his services in July 1914, was forced to resign his post as early as October under pressure from anti-German feeling in British public opinion.