Admiralty
It evolved from *Admiralty Navy War Council, (1909–1912) which in turn became the Admiralty War Staff, (1912–1917) before finally becoming the Admiralty Naval Staff in 1917. It was the former senior command, operational planning, policy and strategy department within the British Admiralty. It was established in 1917 and existed until 1964 when the department of the Admiralty was abolished, and the staff departments function continued within the Navy Department of the Ministry of Defence until 1971 when its functions became part of the new Naval Staff, Navy Department of the Ministry of Defence.
Sidney Reilly
In 1904 the Board of the Admiralty projected that petroleum would supplant coal as the primary source of fuel for the Royal Navy. During their investigation, the British Admiralty learned that an Australian mining-engineer William Knox D'Arcy—who founded the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC)—had obtained the valuable concession from the Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar regarding the oil rights in southern Persia. D'Arcy was negotiating a similar concession from the Ottoman Empire for oil rights in Mesopotamia. The Admiralty initiated efforts to entice D'Arcy to sell his newly acquired oil rights to the British Government rather than to the French de Rothschilds.