The Commander-in-Chief, English Channel or formally Commander-in-Chief, of His Majesty's Ships in the Channel was a senior commander of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. The Spithead Station was a name given to the units, establishments, and staff operating under the post from 1709 to 1746. Following Admiral

Lord Anson Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, (23 April 1697 – 6 June 1762) was a Royal Navy officer. Anson served as a junior officer during the War of the Spanish Succession and then saw active service against Spain at the Batt ...

new appointment as ''Commander-in-Chief, English Channel'' this office was amalgamated with the office of

Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth The Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. The commanders-in-chief were based at premises in High Street, Portsmouth from the 1790s until the end of Sir Thomas Williams's tenure, his succe ...

History

Initially the English Navy had organized its fleet into sub-commands namely squadrons from at least 1205 and certainly during the 16th century. A

channel squadron Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

was operating out of

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

from around 1512. By 1560 The Navy Royal had three functioning squadrons one in the

Channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

, and the

Irish Sea The Irish Sea or , gv, Y Keayn Yernagh, sco, Erse Sie, gd, Muir Èireann , Ulster-Scots: ''Airish Sea'', cy, Môr Iwerddon . is an extensive body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Ce ...

and another in the North Sea. From 1509 until 1649 Vice-Admirals commanding particular fleets were styled so as to denote he was junior to the

Lord Admiral of England The Lord High Admiral (of England beginning in the 14th century, later of Great Britain and then the United Kingdom) is the ceremonial head of the Royal Navy. Most have been courtiers or members of British royal family, and not professional na ...

these flag officers were formally appointed by the crown. From 1709 the Channel Squadron was coordinated out of

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

under the command of Sir John Norris. In 1715 Norris was reassigned to command the British Baltic Fleet and sent to the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

to support a coalition of naval forces from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

and

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

taking in the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

. In 1729 Admiral Norris returned to the Spithead Station for a second tenure as CINC. In March 1744 he resigned his post over the Admiralty's attempts to override his authority in setting strategy in response to renewed hostilities against France. Following Admiral Norris's resignation the station was then commanded by

Sir John Balchen Admiral of the White Sir John Balchen (2 February 1670 – 4 October 1744), sometimes written as Balchin, was an officer of the British Royal Navy with a long and distinguished career during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. In the course ...

until 1746 when the Admiralty issued orders to centralize all existing naval commands in the English Channel including Spithead and those at the Downs, Narrow Seas ,

, and

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

, to be under the control of Admiral

then the Commander-in-Chief, Western Squadron. He then assumed the post of ''Commander-in-Chief, English Channel'', The Spithead Station was then merged with Portsmouth Station.

Commander-in-Chief, English Channel

*Vice-Admiral, Sir John Norris, 5 March 1709 – 1715. *Vice-Admiral,

James Berkeley, 3rd Earl of Berkeley Vice-Admiral James Berkeley, 3rd Earl of Berkeley, (aft. 1679 – 17 August 1736) was the son of Charles Berkeley, 2nd Earl of Berkeley and the Hon. Elizabeth Noel. He was known by the courtesy title of Viscount Dursley prior to succeeding ...

, 1719. (as C-in-C, British Channel Fleet) *Admiral Sir John Norris, 1729-1744 (second time - appoint adm. of the fleet and c.-in-c. then resigned) *Admiral

, 14 July 1744

References

Sources

* Archives, The National. "Commission and Warrant Book". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. National Archives UK, ADM 6/16 4 January 1742 – 18 September 1745. * Baumber, Michael (1989). General-at-sea : Robert Blake and the seventeenth-century revolution in naval warfare (1. publ. ed.). London: J. Murray. . * Beatson, Robert (1804). Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to 1783. London, England: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme. * Corbett, Julian Stafford (1917). "The Navy of Elizabeth". Drake and the Tudor navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power. London, England: London : Longmans, Green. * Harrison, Simon. "Commander-in-Chief at English Channel". threedecks.org. S. Harrison 2010-2018. * Heathcote, T.A. (2002). The British Admirals of the Fleet : 1734-1995 : a biographical dictionary (1. publ. in Great Britain. ed.). Barnsley: Cooper.. * Knighton, edited by C.S.; Loades, David (2011). The Navy of Edward VI and Mary I. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate for the Navy Records Society. . * Naughton, John Knox (1904). Dictionary of National Biography: Howard, Edward (1477?-1513) (Vol 28 ed.). Smith, Elder & Co. * "NORRIS, Sir John (c.1671-1749), of Benenden, Kent, and St. Paul's, Covent Garden, London , History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. The History of Parliament Trust 1964-2017. * Palmer, Michael A. (2005). Command at Sea: Naval Command and Control Since the Sixteenth Century. Harvard, Mass, USA: Harvard University Press. . * Runyan, Timothy J. (1987). Ships, Seafaring, and Society: Essays in Maritime History. Detroit, Michigan, USA: Wayne State University Press. . * Stewart, William (2009). Admirals of the World: A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present. McFarland. . {{Royal Navy fleets, state=collapsed En Military units and formations established in 1512 Military units and formations disestablished in 1746 Military history of the English Channel