British Admirals of the Fleet

by T A Heathcote

  SOMERVILLE

  Sir JAMES FOWNES, GCB, GBE, DSO (1882–1949) [93]

  James Somerville was born on 17 July 1882, at Weybridge, Surrey, the second son of Arthur Somerville of Dinder House, Wells, Somerset. His grandmother was a descendant of the Hood family, two of whose members had been admirals in the Napoleonic wars. Somerville entered the Navy in 1897 as a cadet in the training ship Britannia. After serving as a midshipman successively in the cruisers Royal Arthur in the Channel and Warspite in the Pacific, he was promoted to sub-lieutenant on 15 December 1901 at the beginning of his promotion courses. He became a lieutenant on 15 March 1904 and joined the armoured cruiser Sutlej on the China station, in which he served until returning home in 1907 to attend the torpedo school Vernon at Portsmouth. After qualifying as a torpedo officer, he remained at Vernon (at that time responsible for most aspects of electrical training) to work on the development of wireless telegraphy. He met Mary (Molly) Main, the good-looking and spirited daughter of a retired colonel of Royal Engineers living in Botley, Hampshire, and, after a prolonged friendship, and some prompting by her family, married her in 1913. They later had a daughter and a son who followed him into the Navy.

  After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 Somerville served first as wireless officer in the battleship Marlborough in the Grand Fleet, then as fleet wireless officer in the successive flagships of Vice-Admiral De Robeck [77] in the Dardanelles campaign, the battleship Queen Elizabeth, the battle-cruiser Inflexible and the cruiser Chatham. He was promoted to commander on 31 December 1915 and was awarded the DSO in 1916. Somerville joined the Grand Fleet with De Robeck in January 1917, in the battleship King George V, flagship of the Second Battle Squadron, where he contributed to the development of wireless fire control systems. At the end of 1917 he joined the Signals School, Portsmouth, where responsibility for wireless telegraphy had been transferred from Vernon, and remained there after the war ended in November 1918.

  In March 1920 Somerville became commander of the battleship Ajax in the Mediterranean, from which he moved to the battleship Emperor of India, flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet. He was promoted to captain on 31 December 1921 and, during 1922, served at the Admiralty as Deputy Director of the Signals Division. He then returned to the Mediterranean as flag captain of the battleship Benbow, flagship of his old friend (later Sir) John Kelly [85], commanding the Fourth Battle Squadron. From early 1925 to 1927 Somerville was Director of Signals at the Admiralty. He then became flag captain and chief of staff to Kelly as second-in-command of the Mediterranean Fleet, first in the battleship Warspite and then, after Warspite was damaged by striking an uncharted rock, the battleship Barham. He was a member of the directing staff at the Imperial Defence College, London, from 1929 to 1931. In the aftermath of the mutiny of the Atlantic Fleet at Invergordon, Somerville, together with Captain John Tovey [92], was selected by Kelly, the new C-in-C, to enquire into the seamen’s problems. He next commanded the cruiser Norfolk in the Home Fleet, prior to appointment as commodore of the naval barracks at Portsmouth in October 1932.

  Somerville was promoted to rear-admiral on 12 October 1933. In May 1934 he returned to the Admiralty as Director of Personal Services, where he introduced a seamen’s welfare scheme that stemmed from his findings after the Invergordon mutiny. From 1936 to 1938 he was flag officer (Destroyers) in the Mediterranean Fleet, with his flag in the light cruiser Galatea, at a time of international tension arising from the Italian campaign in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Spanish Civil War. He was promoted to vice-admiral on 11 September 1937 and became C-in-C, East Indies, with his flag in the cruiser Norfolk in July 1938. There he was diagnosed as suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis and invalided to the retired list. Despite the opinion of eminent civilian specialists that he had fully recovered, he was not re-instated, though he was awarded the KCB in 1939. On the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 Sir James Somerville reported to the Admiralty for active duty, and, as a wireless specialist, worked on the development of radar. During the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk in May 1940 he joined Vice-Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Flag Officer, Dover, and helped him carry the burden of continuous command at this critical period.

  With the fall of France in June 1940, Somerville was given command of Force H, a detached squadron based at Gibraltar, composed initially of an aircraft carrier and three capital ships. The British government, concerned to prevent the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir from falling into Axis hands, offered it the choice of continuing the fight, sailing to the West Indies, or handing over its ships to British control. When no satisfactory answer was received, Somerville, with his flag in the battle-cruiser Hood, was ordered to sink the French ships at their moorings. After several hours of negotiation with the French and exchanging signals with the Admiralty in the hope that his orders would be changed, he eventually bombarded the harbour on 3 July 1940, followed by an air attack on 6 July 1940. In August 1940 he transferred his flag to the battle-cruiser Renown. Under Somerville, Force H was primarily deployed in the western Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic, providing escorts for important convoys to Malta and attacking Italian shore installations. At the battle of Cape Spartivento (27 November 1940) he put to flight a faster Italian fleet that had threatened a British convoy, but was unable to bring it to battle before it reached the protection of its air-bases and light craft. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was critical of Somerville for not continuing the pursuit and sought his court-martial. The First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound [89], sent the Earl of Cork and Orrery [87] to Gibraltar in December 1941 to conduct an enquiry. Cork considered that Somerville’s decision was entirely sound and reported accordingly. In May 1941 Somerville hoisted his flag briefly in the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, prior to taking fighter reinforcements to Malta. From 24 to 27 May 1941, with Force H, he took part in the destruction of the German battleship Bismarck. In August 1941 he transferred his flag to the battleship Nelson and, after Nelson was damaged while escorting a Malta convoy on 27 September 1941, successively to the battleships Rodney and Malaya.

  Somerville was ordered to the Indian Ocean as C-in-C, Eastern Fleet, in March 1942, with promotion to admiral (retired) on 6 April 1942. Early in April 1942, when a superior Japanese fleet threatened Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Somerville, with his flag in the battleship Warspite, sailed to meet it, but failed to make contact. Shortly afterwards he was given discretion to withdraw to Kilindini, (Mombasa, Kenya) where for the next two years he had to adopt the strategy of avoiding action, so as to keep his ships as a “fleet in being”. Early in 1944 the improved Allied position in Europe allowed the Eastern Fleet to be reinforced with powerful modern ships and Somerville, with his flag in the battleship Queen Elizabeth, went onto the offensive by launching air strikes on Sabang (17 April 1944 and 25 July 1944) and Surabaya (17 May 1944). Somerville’s relations with the Allied Supreme Commander, South-East Asia, Lord Louis Mountbatten [102], appointed in August 1943, were initially cordial, but became frosty when Mountbatten (considerably junior to Somerville as a flag officer) attempted to claim the Eastern Fleet as part of his own Command. Somerville was succeeded by Sir Bruce Fraser [95] in August 1944, after being restored to the active list.

  Somerville became head of the British naval delegation at the Combined Chiefs of Staff committee in Washington in October 1944. He remained there for the rest of the war, with promotion to admiral of the fleet on 8 May 1945, until returning home in December 1945. He undertook no further naval duties, but played a full part in civic life from his home at Dinder House, Somerset, where he died of coronary thrombosis on 19 May 1949. Slight of build and stature, but always physically active and extrovert, Somerville was a trusted and popular leader, despite his abrasive tongue and blue language. His salty, even earthy, sense of humour endeared him to the lower deck, and he greatly relished the signal he received from Sir Andrew Cunningham [91] on being awarded the KBE in 1941 “What, twice a knight at your age?”.

 
STAVELEY

  Sir WILLIAM DOVETON MINET, GCB (1928–1997) [113]

  William Staveley was born on 10 November 1928, the son of an admiral and grandson of Sir Doveton Sturdee [73]. After attending West Downs School at Winchester, Hampshire, he joined the Navy as a cadet at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1942. After the end of the Second World War he was promoted to midshipman on 1 September 1946 and appointed to the cruiser Ajax in the Mediterranean Fleet. He became an acting sub-lieutenant on 1 January 1948, under training in the destroyer Zephyr, and with his promotion confirmed on 1 January 1948, served from 1949 to 1951 successively in the cruisers Nigeria and Bermuda in the South Atlantic. He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 September 1950. From 1952 to 1954 Staveley was flag lieutenant to the C-in-C, Home Fleet, Sir George Creasy [101], successively in the aircraft carrier Indomitable and the battleship Vanguard. In 1954 he married Bettina Shuter and later had with her a son and a daughter. Between 1954 and 1956 he was an instructor at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and during 1957 was in the royal yacht Britannia. He served on the Far East station as first lieutenant of the destroyer Cavalier from November 1957 until his promotion to lieutenant-commander on 1 September 1958, and was present at the British hydrogen bomb tests at Christmas Island on the Pacific. During 1959 he qualified at the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich, and between 1959 to 1961 was on the staff of the C-in-C, Nore.

  Staveley was promoted to commander on 31 December 1961 and in January 1965 became commanding officer of the minesweeper Houghton and Senior Officer, 104th (later Sixth) Minesweeping Flotilla in the Far East Fleet. After operational service during the Brunei counter-insurgency campaign in 1962 and the confrontation with Indonesia in Malaysia in 1963 he was Commander, Sea Training, at the working-up base, Portland, from 1964 to 1966. He commanded the destroyer Zulu on the Home and Middle East stations between January and October 1967, when he was appointed Assistant Director of Naval Plans at the Ministry of Defence, with promotion to captain on 31 December 1967. From November 1970 to April 1972 he was flag captain to the second-in-command, Far East Fleet, in the assault ship Intrepid, and was then captain of the commando carrier Albion from May 1972 until she was decommissioned in 1973.

  Staveley then attended the Royal College of Defence Studies before returning to the MOD as Director of Naval Plans (later Director of Naval Future Policies) from February 1974 until 1976, when he became Flag Officer, Second Flotilla. He was promoted to rear-admiral on 7 January 1977 and was appointed Flag Officer, Carriers and Amphibious Ships, and NATO Allied Commander, Carrier Striking Group Two, based at Portsmouth, in March 1977. In October 1978 he became chief of staff to the C-in-C, Fleet, Sir Henry Leach [111], who had been Director of Naval Plans during Staveley’s period as Assistant Director. Between 1980 and 1982 Staveley was a member of the Admiralty Board at the MOD as Vice-Chief of the Naval Staff. He was promoted to vice-admiral on 11 April 1980 and awarded the KCB in 1981. An announcement of reductions in the Navy by John Nott, Defence Secretary in Margaret Thatcher’s first Cabinet, was followed by the Argentine occupation of the Falkland Islands (1–2 April 1982). Sir William Staveley regretted that, as VCNS, he was unable to play an operational role in the subsequent campaign and so emulate his grandfather with another British victory in the Falklands. He was promoted to admiral on 29 October 1982 on appointment as C-in-C, Fleet, and NATO Allied C-in-C, Channel (CINCHAN) and Eastern Atlantic Area (CINCEASTLANT). He drew attention to the inadequacy of his resources to meet the Warsaw Pact’s threat to NATO sea communications and thereby caused irritation to British ministers anxious to reduce defence expenditure. From 1985 to 1989 he was First Sea Lord under successive Conservative ministers and continued to press for a fleet capable of meeting its NATO and other international commitments. Staveley left the Ministry of Defence with promotion to admiral of the fleet on 25 May 1989. He subsequently held a number of public appointments, including senior posts in the administration of the National Health Service. He died of a heart attack on 13 October 1997.

  STEUART

  JAMES, (c. 1690–1757) [3]

  James Steuart or Stewart, born in about 1690, became captain of the 5th-rate Greyhound on 14 January 1709, during the War of the Spanish Succession. He was later given command of the 4th-rate Dartmouth, in which he spent the rest of the war in the Mediterranean. During 1716 he commanded the 6th-rate Aldborough off the Scottish coast, in anti-Jacobite patrols. He was captain of the galley Royal Anne in the squadron that escorted George I on his return from Hanover in 1717, but held no recorded naval appointments during “the long peace” that followed. Following the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740 he was given command of the 3rd-rate Cumberland, in which he served in the Channel in 1741 and the West Indies in 1742. Between 1741 and 1747 Steuart was Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, Dorset. He became rear-admiral of the Blue on 6 April 1742, rear-admiral of the White on August 1743, vice-admiral of the Blue on 7 December 1743 and vice-admiral of the Red on 19 June 1744. In 1744 he was second-in-command of a fleet sent to Lisbon to support the Portuguese government against a threatened invasion from Spain. Steuart did not again go to sea. He was promoted to admiral of the White on 15 July 1747 and became admiral of the fleet on 22 November 1750. He died in March 1757.

  STEWART

  Sir HOUSTON, GCB (1791–1875) [34]

  Houston Stewart, a younger son of a Scottish baronet, was born on 3 August 1791. He joined the Navy during the Napoleonic wars, as a first class volunteer in the 5th-rate Medusa, on 5 February 1805. His first long cruise was to Calcutta, then the capital of British India, escorting the newly appointed Governor-General of Bengal, Lord Cornwallis. Medusa then returned home in what was, for the period, the short time of eighty-three days for the round trip. Stewart transferred to the 3rd-rate Revenge in which he served in the blockade of Brest and Lorient and was present at the capture of four French frigates by Sir Samuel Hood (later Viscount Hood) on 25 September 1806. In October 1806 he joined the 5th-rate Impérieuse, commanded by Lord Cochrane (later Earl of Dundonald), one of the most dashing frigate captains of his day, under whom he took part in a series of raids and boat actions along the west coast of France. Stewart was mentioned in despatches for his part in the destruction of Fort Roquette, Arcachon, on 7 January 1807. In the Mediterranean, during November 1808, he served with Cochrane in a landing party alongside the Spanish defenders of Rosas. He was then given command of a small vessel, Julie, used as an armed tender until damaged by coastal artillery fire. He rejoined Impérieuse, commanded by Cochrane’s successor, Thomas Garth, and took part in the British expedition to Walcheren (July-September 1809). At a critical point in the attack on Flushing (Vlissingen) he was commended for suggesting the use of explosive shells (remaining from the incendiary Cochrane’s period in command) with which Impérieuse destroyed an opposing shore battery.

  From November 1809 to January 1810 Stewart was in the 4th-rate Adamant, flagship of Rear-Admiral Edward Nagle at Leith. In May 1810 he joined the 6th-rate Hussar, in which he served in the North Sea and the Baltic. He was subsequently appointed to the 1st-rate Royal William at Portsmouth and the 5th-rate Alexandria at Leith, in which he became a lieutenant on 1 August 1811. A fortnight later he was transferred to the 3rd-rate Tigre, in which he took part in the continuing blockade of Rochefort. In May 1812 he joined the 1st-rate San Josef, flagship of Lord Keith, in the Channel, and in January 1813 became Keith’s signal-lieutenant in the 1st-rate Queen Charlotte. Stewart was briefly detached in March 1814 as acting captain of the 3rd-rate Clarence, blockading Brest, and in June 1814 as acting captain of the sloop Podargus off Finisterre. Stewart was promoted to commander on 13 August 1814 and, at the time of Napoleon’s final defeat in June 1815, was serving in the West Indies. There, between January 1815 and April 1818, he commanded in succession the sloops Shark, Royalist and Rifleman, followed by acting command successively of the 5th-rate Pique and the 4th-rate Salisbury. He was promoted to captain on 10 June 1817. After returning h
ome, he married in 1819 Martha Miller, the daughter of a Scottish baronet, and later had with her a family of three sons, of whom the eldest became an admiral.

  From October 1823 to December 1826 Stewart commanded the 6th-rate Menai on the North America station, based at Halifax, Nova Scotia. He returned to sea in April 1839, in command of the 3rd-rate Benbow in the Mediterranean. At this time Mehemet Ali, the Albanian ruler of Egypt, had conquered Palestine and Syria and threatened to unseat his nominal overlord, the Sultan of Turkey. The French supported Mehemet Ali, but the other Great Powers were determined to protect the Sultan. While France prepared for war, a combined British, Austrian and Turkish fleet appeared off Beirut, Lebanon. This encouraged a general rising throughout Syria against Mehemet Ali’s oppressive rule. Stewart, at the head of a small squadron, delivered arms to the Arabs, rescued the consuls of Aleppo (Haleb, Syria) and Alexandretta (Iskenderun, Turkey), and bombarded the Egyptian garrison in Tripoli (Tarabulus, Lebanon). With the main fleet, he took part in the bombardment and capture of Acre, Palestine (Akko, Israel) in November 1840. The rapid collapse of Mehemet’s forces pre-empted a war in Europe and, in the early part of 1841, Stewart commanded the British and Austrian squadrons observing the Egyptian withdrawal. Later that year he played a part in rescuing Greek nationalists from Candia (Heraklion, Crete), following an unsuccessful rebellion against Turkish rule.

  From May to July 1846 Stewart was acting Superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard and captain of the yacht William and Mary. He was Comptroller General of the Coast Guard from November 1846 to 1850, when he was appointed a lord commissioner of the Admiralty. Between 1850 and 1852 he sat as a Tory Member of Parliament for Greenwich. He served at the Admiralty, with promotion to rear-admiral on 16 June 1851, until the Earl of Derby’s first administration fell in December 1852. From 1853 to 1855 he was Superintendent of Malta Dockyard. Following the outbreak of the Crimean War in March 1854, a British fleet was sent to the Black Sea, where he became second-in-command in January 1855. During October 1855 Stewart commanded a squadron in the successful allied landings at Kinburn (Pokrovskiy), guarding the strategically important Russian port of Ochakov in the Dnepr estuary (Dneprovskiy Liman). He was awarded the KCB in July 1855 and during 1856 served as Superintendent of Devonport Dockyard. From November 1856 to January 1860 Sir Houston Stewart was C-in-C on the North America station with promotion to vice-admiral on 30 July 1857. He was C-in-C, Plymouth, from October 1860 to October 1863, with promotion to admiral on 10 November 1862. He became an admiral of the fleet on 20 October 1872 and died on 10 December 1875.