Admiralty

The Admiralty was the department that ran the British navy, the Royal Navy. It combined the tasks of a ministry and a high command: it was responsible for ships, promotions and appointments, and in wartime it issued orders to fleets and squadrons. Its building stood in Whitehall in London.

The Board of Admiralty

From 1628 the office of Lord High Admiral was exercised collectively by the Board of Admiralty, made up of politicians and admirals. It was chaired by the First Lord of the Admiralty, always a civilian and a member of one of the Houses of Parliament, who represented the navy in the Cabinet. The professional head of the navy was the First Sea Lord, the highest-ranking officer. During the war the number of Sea Lords on the Board was for a time increased to eight.

From October 1911 the First Lord was Winston Churchill. He created a naval war staff and switched new warships from coal to oil. In July 1914 the First Sea Lord, Prince Louis of Battenberg, kept the fleet ready after the review at Spithead, so that it entered the war concentrated.

From the autumn of 1914 a section of code-breakers known as Room 40 worked in the Admiralty. It used German codebooks, including those recovered by the Russians from the wreck of the Magdeburg, and warned the fleet of German sorties, as before the Battle of Dogger Bank and Jutland. In January 1917 it intercepted the Zimmermann Telegram.

Quarrels and dismissals

The Admiralty’s leadership changed several times during the war. On 29 October 1914 Battenberg had to step down because he was a German prince by birth, and his place was taken by John Fisher. The quarrel between Fisher and Churchill over the Dardanelles cost both of them their posts in May 1915. Fisher walked out of the Admiralty, Churchill was replaced by Arthur Balfour, and Henry Jackson became First Sea Lord.

In December 1916, as David Lloyd George’s government was being formed, Edward Carson took over the Admiralty, and John Jellicoe, until then commander of the Grand Fleet, became First Sea Lord. Jellicoe set up an anti-submarine division in the staff. Yet when from February 1917 the U-boats sank more and more ships, the Admiralty long considered convoys too risky. It tried them in May, under pressure from the Prime Minister and junior officers, and on 14 June approved the plan for regular convoys.

In the same year the naval staff was rebuilt. The First Sea Lord also became its chief and was to deal with strategy rather than administrative matters. In May Eric Geddes, before the war deputy general manager of the North Eastern Railway, came to the Admiralty as Controller, responsible for building warships and merchant ships. In July he replaced Carson as First Lord.

The end of the war

Geddes decided that he could not give of his best as long as Jellicoe remained First Sea Lord, and on 24 December 1917 dismissed him. His duties were taken over by Jellicoe’s deputy, Vice-Admiral Rosslyn Wemyss. It was Wemyss who in November of the following year signed, together with Marshal Foch, the armistice at Compiègne. The Admiralty itself survived until 1964, when it became part of the Ministry of Defence.