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ADMIRALS OF THE BRITISH NAVY

Portraits in Colours by

FRANCIS DODD

With Introduction and Biographical Notes







Published from the Offices of "Country Life," Ltd.,
20, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, London;
and George Newnes, Ltd., 8-11, Southampton Street,
Strand, London, W.C. 2.
MCMXVII




CONTENTS


         _INTRODUCTION_

     I.--JELLICOE, ADMIRAL SIR JOHN R., G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O.

    II.--BURNEY, ADMIRAL SIR CECIL, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., D.S.O.

   III.--MADDEN, ADMIRAL SIR C. E., K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O.

    IV.--PHILLIMORE, REAR-ADMIRAL R. F., C.B., M.V.O.

     V.--BACON, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR R. H. S., K.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O.

    VI.--DE ROBECK, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR J. M., K.C.B.

   VII.--NAPIER, VICE-ADMIRAL T. D. W., C.B., M.V.O.

  VIII.--BROCK, REAR-ADMIRAL SIR OSMOND de B., K.C.V.O., C.B., C.M.G.

    IX.--HALSEY, REAR-ADMIRAL LIONEL, C.B., C.M.G.

     X.--PAKENHAM, VICE-ADMIRAL SIR W. C., K.C.B., K.C.V.O.

    XI.--PAINE, COMMODORE GODFREY M., C.B., M.V.O.

   XII.--TYRWHITT, COMMODORE SIR R. Y., K.C.B., D.S.O.




INTRODUCTION


If the English are singularly incurious about their Navy, that attitude
must not be thought to imply neglect. On the contrary, it is a blend of
admiration, respect, and, above all, confidence, induced very largely by
the Navy itself. For so long has the Navy minded its own silent business
that we--otherwise so inquisitive a people--have come to look upon it as
beyond examination and (normally too eager to cut open the drum and
explore its resources) trustfully to leave it to its own devices,
conscious that those devices are wholly in our own interests. As Matthew
Arnold said in his sonnet to Shakespeare:

    _Others abide our question, thou art free--_

so do we address the Navy. For, although it baffles curiosity and ends
by eliminating it, it is only to substitute faith. We do not take for
granted all the things that we cannot understand: sometimes, indeed, we
deny them; but we are satisfied to take for granted the Navy. We know
that it is there. Where "there" is we may have no notion; by "there" we
mean probably everywhere. The Navy is not only there, the Navy is
everywhere, and therefore all's well. That is our simple creed.

A further cause for this quiet and unusual acceptivity is to be found in
the medium in which the Navy works--the sea itself. The sea has ever
been a barrier to investigation, and the Navy and the sea are one.
Public opinion is land-made, and landsmen have neither time nor
inclination to cope with the riddles of the ocean, which to most of us
is vague and inimical, the home of risks and discomforts which it is
wiser to avoid. Well content to consider her, from a safe distance, as a
Sphinx, we are very happy that to others has fallen the perilous lot of
patrolling her and very full of gratitude for their courage and
success.

If the Army, on the contrary, is so much under the microscope, it is
largely because it has few or no mysteries. We know the rules. Armies
are made up of men like ourselves (only better). They advance as we do,
by putting one foot before another, on the solid earth. Their movements
are followable, even if we cannot always understand them; daily
bulletins are printed in the public Press. But the Navy keeps its
secrets. Not only have we no notion where it is, but we should be little
the wiser as to its inner purposes if, scanning the illimitable and
capricious waves, it should be our fortune to descry here and there a
flotilla of its dark grey hulls. Even in harbour most men pointing out a
cruiser to their children say "That's a dreadnought"--a state of
confusion bred and fostered by the strange, dark, dangerous element in
which the Navy has its being.

So much for the causes of our odd willingness to forego one of the chief
privileges of British birthright, which is to criticise, even to
belittling, all that is ours. But there is justification, too, as the
state of the sea to-day testifies. Thanks to the Navy there is at this
moment hardly an enemy ship at large on the surface of the waters. The
Kaiser's darling ironclads are idle as painted ships upon a painted
ocean: not even an ocean, a canal. Our troops in millions have crossed
to the Continent. We have enough to eat.

By what wonders of efficiency and discipline, machinery and
co-ordination, this result has been brought about we neither know nor
are concerned to enquire. Enough that it is. But when it comes to
_personnel_, curiosity is legitimate; and this collection of portraits
and brief biographies has been prepared in the belief that very many of
those whose lives have been rendered secure by these efforts of the Navy
would like to see what manner of men are in control of our safeguards.
This is the heyday of the picture, and here are the pictures of our
leading sailors--the commanders who stand between us and the foe and
keep the foe at bay.

Charles Lamb (who was less of a sea-dog even than most men) confessed in
old age that he once sat to an artist friend for the portraits of
sixteen British Admirals. Mr. Dodd (even could a sitter of such notable
companionableness be now found) would have forced himself to dispense
with the fun of using him, for verisimilitude's sake, because all these
heads have been drawn from life and are reproduced as nearly as possible
in the colours of life. Looking over the forty and more Naval heroes
whom he has limned, one is struck by a generic likeness which is deeper
than such superficial similarity as the service beard can confer. Most
of the Admirals look like Admirals--and is there a better thing to be?
Certainly there is no better word. Not only have their ability and
courage and character united to lift them to high position and
authority; but here, again, we discern the subtle and penetrating
influence of the sea, a mistress who will allow no relaxation of
vigilance or toil, so swiftly and dangerously changeable can she be.
Hence the keen eyes, the level gaze, of all who would understand and
cope with her, and noticeably of all this gallant company.

In the present work the emphasis is laid rather upon the illustrations
than the letterpress. It is a gallery of portraits rather than a series
of biographies such as "The Lives of the British Admirals," which was
written by Dr. John Campbell, and, with periodical additions, so long
held the field. The time for such biographies happily is not yet. But
when it comes may there be some victories (already, of course, there are
three or four) to record as decisive and as noble as those in Campbell's
volumes!

    E. V. LUCAS.




I

ADMIRAL SIR JOHN R. JELLICOE, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O.


ADMIRAL SIR JOHN RUSHWORTH JELLICOE, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., was born on
December 5th, 1859. He was educated at Rottingdean, and entered the Navy
in 1872, becoming in 1880 a Lieutenant (three First Class Certificates).
As a young officer he specialised in Gunnery.

During the Egyptian War, as Lieutenant of the "Agincourt," he gained the
Egyptian Medal and Khedive's Bronze Star. In 1883 he received a special
L80 prize at the Royal Naval College.

In May, 1886, Lieutenant Jellicoe was awarded the Board of Trade Silver
Medal for having commanded a gig, manned by volunteers, which set out to
rescue the crew of a steamer stranded on a sandbank near Gibraltar. A
heavy sea was running and the boat capsized, but the crew, being
provided with cork jackets, managed to reach the shore in safety.

Lieutenant Jellicoe was Assistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance from
1888 to 1891, on June 30th of which year he became a Commander, and was
serving in the "Victoria" when she foundered off Tripoli after collision
with the "Camperdown" on June 27th, 1893. At the time of the catastrophe
Commander Jellicoe was suffering from Mediterranean fever. He was
promoted to Captain on January 1st, 1897. During the Boxer outbreak in
1900 he was Flag-Captain in the "Centurion," and took part in Admiral
Sir E. H. Seymour's International Expedition to relieve the Pekin
Legations. In this Expedition he acted as Chief Staff Officer, was
wounded, and afterwards received the C.B. for his services.

[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR JOHN R. JELLICOE]

He was Naval Assistant to the Controller of the Navy from February,
1902, to August, 1903; Captain of the "Drake" from August, 1903, to
January, 1905; and Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes from 1905
to August, 1907. In the previous March he had been made Aide-de-Camp to
the King, a post which he held until February 8th, 1907, when he became
an Admiral. From August, 1907, to August, 1908, he was Rear-Admiral in
the Atlantic Fleet, becoming Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy
at the end of 1908. He commanded the Atlantic Fleet in 1910, with the
rank of Acting Vice-Admiral, and on the occasion of King George V.'s
Coronation he was made a K.C.B. In 1911 he commanded the Second Division
of the Home Fleet, becoming a Vice-Admiral on September 18th of that
year. On December 9th, 1912, he was appointed Second Sea Lord.

On the outbreak of war on August 4th, 1914, he was given Chief Command
of the Grand Fleet, with the acting rank of Admiral. He was in supreme
command at the Battle of Jutland.

In recognition of his services during the war, he received the G.C.B. on
February 8th, 1915, and an Order in Council, dated November 10th, 1914,
laid down that "Admiral Jellicoe on his promotion to the rank of Admiral
is to retain seniority as Admiral of August 4th, 1914, while holding his
present command."

On May 31st, 1916, Admiral Jellicoe received the Order of Merit.

On December 4th, 1916, he became First Sea Lord, the title "Chief of
Naval Staff" being added on May 31st, 1917.

Admiral Jellicoe holds the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the
Russian Order of St. George (Third Class), the Order of the First Class
of the Rising Sun with Paulounia, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of
Leopold, also the French and Belgian Croix de Guerre and the Grand Cross
of the Military Order of Savoy.

No biographical notice of Sir John Jellicoe would be complete without a
mention of his father, who was, in his day, a well-known and
distinguished Captain in the Merchant Service. It is pleasant to
remember that Captain Jellicoe lived to see his son in command of the
Grand Fleet during the greatest war in history. This close connection
between the two branches of sea service is also peculiarly happy and
appropriate. Admiral Patton, a great-grandfather on his mother's side,
was Second Sea Lord during the Trafalgar campaign.




II

ADMIRAL SIR CECIL BURNEY, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.


ADMIRAL SIR CECIL BURNEY, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., was born in 1858 and
received his education at the Royal Naval Academy, Gosport; he served as
a Lieutenant of the "Carysfoot" during the Egyptian war, and also in the
Naval and military operations near Suakin in the Eastern Soudan. For
these services he received the Egyptian Medal, Khedive's Bronze Star and
Suakin Clasp.

As a Lieutenant of the "Hecate" Admiral Burney performed a singularly
gallant action. His ship having gone outside Plymouth Breakwater for gun
trials, a carpenter's mate engaged in some work on the outside of a
turret slipped overboard, striking his head as he fell. Lieutenant
Burney and Mr. Berridge, gunner, at once plunged to the rescue and
succeeded in supporting the man till one of the boats, which
unfortunately were stowed inboard owing to gun practice, could be got
ready to go to their assistance.

In 1906-7 Admiral Burney was Aide-de-Camp to King Edward VII. He was
Rear-Admiral of Plymouth Home Fleet, 1909-10, a member of the Admiralty
Submarine Committee, 1910-11; Rear-Admiral Commanding Fifth Cruiser
Squadron, February, 1911; Acting Vice-Admiral Commanding Third Battle
Squadron (formerly Atlantic Fleet), in December of the same year and
Vice-Admiral in September, 1912.

In April, 1913, he became second in command in the Mediterranean and
Senior Officer of the International Squadron ordered to blockade the
coast of Montenegro, and in May of the same year he was appointed Chief
to the Commission to administer the affairs of Scutari on behalf of the
Powers.

[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR CECIL BURNEY]

Vice-Admiral Burney received the K.C.B. on King George's Birthday in
1913, and the K.C.M.G. in October of the same year, in which he also
received the command of the Second and Third Fleets.

At the Battle of Jutland he was second in command of the Grand Fleet and
was mentioned in despatches. He became a G.C.M.G. and Admiral in 1916,
being decorated Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour for his war
services in the same year. In 1916 he was also appointed Second Sea Lord
of the Admiralty. He also holds the Order of St. Vladimir (Second Class)
with swords, the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Maurice and St.
Lazarus, and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.

Admiral Burney retired from the post of Second Sea Lord in August, 1917,
and in October was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the East Coast of
Scotland in succession to the late Admiral Sir Frederick Hamilton.




III

ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES EDWARD MADDEN, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O.


ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES EDWARD MADDEN, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O., became a
midshipman in October, 1877. As an Acting Sub-Lieutenant of H.M.S.
"Ruby," he served in the Egyptian War of 1882 and received the Egyptian
Medal and the Khedive's Bronze Star. He became a Lieutenant on July
27th, 1884.

As a young officer, Admiral Madden specialized in Torpedo work, and from
1893 to 1896 was First Lieutenant and Staff Officer of the "Vernon"
torpedo school ship.

On June 30th of the latter year he became Commander and was promoted
Captain on the same day of the same month in 1901.

From 1902 to 1904 Captain Madden was Flag Captain to Sir Wilmot Fawkes,
commanding the Cruiser Squadron in H.M.S. "Good Hope."

On February 7th, 1905, Captain Madden was appointed Naval Assistant to
the Controller of the Navy, becoming on December 20th of the following
year Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord.

On the occasion of King Edward's Review of the Home Fleet in the Solent
on August 3rd, 1907, he received the C.V.O.

Nine days later Captain Madden became Captain of H.M.S. "Dreadnought,"
and Chief of Staff, Home Fleet.

[Illustration: ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES E. MADDEN]

On December 1st, 1908, he was appointed Private Secretary to the First
Lord of the Admiralty, and from January 25th, 1910, to December, 1911,
was Fourth Sea Lord; from January, 1910, to April 12th, 191