Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Sir Herbert William Richmond, (15 September 1871 – 15 December 1946) was a prominent

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 ...

officer, described as "perhaps the most brilliant naval officer of his generation." He was also a top

naval historian Naval warfare is combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river. Mankind has fought battles on the sea for more than 3,000 years. Even in the interior of large la ...

, known as the "British Mahan",www.jstor.org
/ref> the leader of the British Royal Navy's intellectual revolution that stressed continuing education especially in naval history as essential to the formation of naval strategy. After serving as a "gadfly" to the

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of it ...

, his constructive criticisms causing him to be "denied the role in the formation of policy and the reformations of naval education which his talents warranted", he served as

Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History The Vere Harmsworth Professorship of Imperial and Naval History is one of the senior professorships in history at the University of Cambridge. After the Beit Professorship of Colonial History at Oxford (founded in 1905) and the Rhodes Professors ...

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

from 1934 to 1936, and Master of

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 650 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to Cambridge University between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the olde ...

from 1934 to 1946.

Personal life

Richmond was the second son of artist Sir William Blake Richmond, son of the portrait painter George Richmond. In July 1907 he married Florence Elsa, elder daughter of the writer Florence Bell and Sir Thomas Hugh Bell. She was half-sister of the diplomat

Gertrude Bell Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist. She spent much of her life exploring and mapping the Middle East, and became highly ...

Naval career

Richmond joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1885, serving on the Australian Station and in the Hydrographic Service before qualifying as a torpedo officer in 1897. He began to develop a serious interest in naval history while serving in in 1897–98, in 1899, and in 1899–1900, turning himself into a first-rate historian without formal university training. In 1900–1903 Richmond served in the flagship of the Channel Fleet . Promoted to commander in 1903, he became first officer in , flagship of the

Cape of Good Hope Station The Commander-in-Chief, Africa was the last title of a Royal Navy's formation commander located in South Africa from 1795 to 1939. Under varying titles, it was one of the longest-lived formations of the Royal Navy. It was also often known as the C ...

. He was assigned to the Admiralty in 1906–08, where he served briefly as naval assistant to Admiral

John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher, (25 January 1841 – 10 July 1920), commonly known as Jacky or Jackie Fisher, was a British Admiral of the Fleet. With more than sixty years in the Royal Navy, his efforts to reform the service helped t ...

. In 1907, inspired by the work of civilian naval historian

Julian Corbett Sir Julian Stafford Corbett (12 November 1854 at Walcot House, Kennington Road, Lambeth – 21 September 1922 at Manor Farm, Stopham, Pulborough, Sussex) was a prominent British naval historian and geostrategist of the late 19th and ear ...

, Richmond began archive research concerning the naval aspects of the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...

, which he completed in 1914, but which was not published until 1920 due to the First World War. Promoted to captain, Richmond commanded from 1909 to 1911, then, in 1911–12, the Torpedo School, training ships and .Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> In 1912 he founded the ''

Naval Review A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to ...

'' in order to promote innovative thought within the Royal Navy. In 1913 Richmond became assistant director of operations on the Admiralty's Naval Staff, where his frequent memoranda about deficiencies in naval strategy drew the disdain of First Lord of the Admiralty

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...

and

Grand Fleet The Grand Fleet was the main battlefleet of the Royal Navy during the First World War. It was established in August 1914 and disbanded in April 1919. Its main base was Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. History Formed in August 1914 from the ...

CIC Admiral

Sir John Jellicoe Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, (5 December 1859 – 20 November 1935) was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutla ...

, and when events proved him right, he was shoveled off as a liaison officer to the Italian Fleet in April 1915, returning from

Taranto Taranto (, also ; ; nap, label= Tarantino, Tarde; Latin: Tarentum; Old Italian: ''Tarento''; Ancient Greek: Τάρᾱς) is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto, serving as an important com ...

in September 1915. After this he was given a backwater assignment, command of (part of a

pre-dreadnought Pre-dreadnought battleships were sea-going battleships built between the mid- to late- 1880s and 1905, before the launch of in 1906. The pre-dreadnought ships replaced the ironclad battleships of the 1870s and 1880s. Built from steel, prote ...

battle squadron at

the Nore The Nore is a long bank of sand and silt running along the south-centre of the final narrowing of the Thames Estuary, England. Its south-west is the very narrow Nore Sand. Just short of the Nore's easternmost point where it fades into the cha ...

) in 1916. Fortunately, after the disappointing 31 May – 1 June 1916

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland (german: Skagerrakschlacht, the Battle of the Skagerrak) was a naval battle fought between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy ...

resulted in the appointment of his admirer Admiral David Beatty as Grand Fleet CIC in December 1916, assisted by his memorandums that predicted the beginning of

unrestricted submarine warfare Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships such as freighters and tankers without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules (also known as "cruiser rules") that call for warships to sea ...

by Germany beginning 1 February 1917, he received command of in the Grand Fleet in April 1917, after which he served as director of staff duties and training in 1918, then commanded in 1919. In early 1917 Richmond lobbied hard for convoy protection of merchant shipping in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

, but the Admiralty resisted despite mounting losses, waiting until the end of April to experiment. On 17 May 1917 Richmond's friend, Lieutenant Joseph M. Kenworthy had a meeting with British Prime Minister

Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...

, in which he recommended that Richmond be appointed to his cabinet, to which Lloyd George replied "I have put his name to the Admiralty and they tell me he is only a paper man". On 20 May he met with him again, pressing him to no avail, with Lloyd George saying "If you could put a captain in a sufficiently strong position, Richmond is the man"; nothing came of it.

Flag officer

Promoted to rear admiral, Richmond was put in charge of the Senior Officers' Course at the

Royal Naval College, Greenwich The Royal Naval College, Greenwich, was a Royal Navy training establishment between 1873 and 1998, providing courses for naval officers. It was the home of the Royal Navy's staff college, which provided advanced training for officers. The equiv ...

in 1920, which office was merged with the Presidency of the Royal Naval College itself in November 1922. In October 1923 he was assigned as commander-in-chief, East Indies Squadron. Promoted to vice admiral in 1925, he was created a

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

in the

1926 Birthday Honours The 1926 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King on 3 June, ...

. Returning to London in 1927, he became Commandant of the Imperial Defence College. In 1929 he was promoted to admiral and served as president of the International Conference on the Safety of Life at Sea.

Academic career

Following his forced retirement from the Royal Navy in 1931, the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

appointed him

, an academic chair he held from 1934 to 1936. In 1934 he was also elected master of

, a post he held until his death in 1946. He delivered the

Ford Lectures The Ford Lectures, technically the James Ford Lectures in British History, are an annual series of public lectures held at the University of Oxford on the subject of English or British history. They are usually devoted to a particular historical ...

in English History at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1943 (for the academic year 1943/4). He never published a formal treatise on naval strategy. In March 1942 Richmond published an article in ''The Fortnightly Review'' which charged that the British defeat in the

Battle of Singapore The Fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore,; ta, சிங்கப்பூரின் வீழ்ச்சி; ja, シンガポールの戦い took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Empire of ...

in February 1942 was due to "the folly of not providing adequately for the command of the sea in a two-ocean war". In his last book ''Statesmen and Sea Power'' (1946), he charged that the defeat was sealed by "the illusion that a Two-Hemisphere Empire can be defended by a One-Hemisphere Navy".

Impact

On 28–29 September 1992 the

Naval War College The Naval War College (NWC or NAVWARCOL) is the staff college and "Home of Thought" for the United States Navy at Naval Station Newport in Newport, Rhode Island. The NWC educates and develops leaders, supports defining the future Navy and associat ...

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

gathered naval experts from around the world to examine the works of Richmond and Sir Julian Corbett in the post-Cold War context, resulting in the book ''Mahan is not Enough'' (1993), which includes the article "Process: The Realities of Formulating Modern Naval Strategy" by Dr. David Alan Rosenberg, showing the importance of leveraging and integrating the expertise of naval historians with naval officers for a full understanding of naval strategy.

Works

* ''Papers Relating to the Loss of

Menorca Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its capi ...

in 1756'' (Navy Records Society, 1913
read online
* ''Private Papers of George, Second Earl Spencer,

First Lord of the Admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...

, 1794–1801'' (2 vols.) (Navy Records Society, 1914) * ''The Navy in the War of 1739–48'' (Cambridge University Press, 1920
read online
* ''Command and Discipline'' (1927) * ''National Policy and Naval Strength and Other Essays'' by H.W. Richmond; with a foreword by

Lord Sydenham of Combe George Sydenham Clarke, 1st Baron Sydenham of Combe, (4 July 1848 – 7 February 1933) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. He later wrote antisemitic and racist pamphlets for the British far right, as well as at least one nove ...

, (New York: Longman, Green and Company, 1928, 1934, 1993
read online
* ''The Navy in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, 1763–1783'' (1931) * ''Economy and Naval Security : A Plea for the Examination of the Problem of the Reduction in the Cost of Naval Armaments on the Lines of Strategy and Policy'' (Ernest Benn Ltd., 1931
read online
* ''Imperial Defence and Capture at Sea in War'' (1932) * ''Naval History and the Citizen: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered before the University on 25 April 1934'' (Cambridge University Press, 1934

* ''Sea Power in the Modern World'' (1934) * ''The Navy'' (William Hodge, 1937

* ''Statesmen and Sea Power'' The

(1946) * ''The Navy as an Instrument of Policy, 1558–1727'' Edited by E.A. Hughes. (1953) * How are we going to make war?' Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond and British Far Eastern War Plans by Christopher M. Bell''
read online
* ''Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond'' by

George Macaulay Trevelyan George Macaulay Trevelyan (16 February 1876 – 21 July 1962) was a British historian and academic. He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1898 to 1903. He then spent more than twenty years as a full-time author. He returned to the ...

(Cumberledge, 1946
read online
* ''The Historical Lessons and Intellectual Rigour of Admiral Sir Herbert William Richmond'' by Commander Bruce McLenna
read online

References

Secondary sources

* * * *

External links

* *
The War of 1739 to 1748
- Annotated typescript texts of seven lectures given by Richmond at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth ampshireon the War of the Austrian Succession , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Richmond, Herbert Royal Navy admirals English naval historians Fellows of Downing College, Cambridge 1871 births 1946 deaths Admiral presidents of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Masters of Downing College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Vere Harmsworth Professors of Imperial and Naval History Dreadnought hoax People from Hammersmith Military personnel from London Royal Navy personnel of World War I