Pembroke Dockyard, originally called Pater Yard, is a former
Royal Navy Dockyard in
Pembroke Dock
Pembroke Dock ( cy, Doc Penfro) is a town and a community in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, northwest of Pembroke on the banks of the River Cleddau. Originally Paterchurch, a small fishing village, Pembroke Dock town expanded rapidly following ...
,
Pembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire ( ; cy, Sir Benfro ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and the rest by sea. The count ...
,
Wales.
History
It was founded in 1814, although not formally authorized until the
Prince Regent signed the necessary
Order in Council on 31 October 1815, and was known as ''Pater Yard'' until 1817. The
Mayor of Pembroke had requested the change "in deference to the town of
Pembroke some distant".
The site selected for the dockyard was
greenfield land and the closest accommodations were in Pembroke. Office space was provided by the old
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
after she was
beached. The
Royal Marine garrison was housed in the
hulked
A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Hulk may be used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, an abandoned wreck or shell, or to refer to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment ...
74-gun ship
The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...
, , after she was run aground in 1832. Many of the workmen commuted by boat from nearby communities until Pembroke Dock town was built up. In 1860 the dockyard's policing was transferred to the new
No. 4 Division of the Metropolitan Police, which remained in that role until the 1920s.
After the end of the
First World War, the dockyard was closed by the cash-strapped
Admiralty as redundant in 1926. The
Royal Air Force, however, built
RAF Pembroke Dock on the site during the 1930s to house its
flying boats, demolishing many of the existing buildings to make room for the necessary
hangars and other facilities.
Administration of the dockyard
The
admiral-superintendent was the
Royal Navy officer in command of a larger
Naval Dockyard.
Portsmouth,
Devonport and
Chatham all had admiral-superintendents, as did some other dockyards in the United Kingdom and abroad at certain times. The admiral-superintendent usually held the rank of
rear-admiral. His deputy was the
captain of the dockyard (or captain of the port from 1969).
Some smaller dockyards, such as
Sheerness
Sheerness () is a town and civil parish beside the mouth of the River Medway on the north-west corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 11,938, it is the second largest town on the island after the nearby town ...
and Pembroke, had a captain-superintendent instead, whose deputy was styled
commander
Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain.
...
of the dockyard. The appointment of a commodore-superintendent was also made from time to time in certain yards.
The appointment of admiral-superintendents (or their junior equivalents) dates from 1832 when the
Admiralty took charge of the Royal Dockyards. Prior to this larger dockyards were overseen by a
commissioner
A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something).
In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...
who represented the
Navy Board.
Resident Commissioner of the Navy, Pater Yard (1830-1832)
Included:
* Captain
Charles Bullen, July 1830 – 1832
Captain-Superintendent, Pembroke Dockyard (1857-1906)
Included:
* Captain
George Ramsay
George Burrell Ramsay (4 March 1855 – 7 October 1935) was a Scottish footballer and manager.
Ramsay was the secretary and manager of Aston Villa Football Club during the club's 'Golden Age'. As a player he was the first Aston Villa captain ...
: July 1857-September 1862
* Captain
William Loring: September 1862-March 1866
* Captain
Robert Hall: March 1866-March 1871
* Captain
William Armytage
William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conqu ...
: February 1871-January 1872
* Captain
Richard W. Courtenay
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...
: January 1872-March 1875
* Captain
Richard Vesey Hamilton
Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton (28 May 1829 – 17 September 1912) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he twice volunteered to take part in missions to search for Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition to find the Northwest Passage ...
: March 1875-October 1877
* Captain George H. Parkin: October 1877-October 1882
* Captain
Alfred J. Chatfield
Alfred may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series
* ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne
* ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák
*"Alfred (Interlu ...
: October 1882-January 1886
* Captain Edward Kelly: January 1886-June 1887
* Commodore
George Digby Morant: June 1887-January 1889
* Captain Samuel Long: January 1889-August 1891
* Captain Walter Stewart: August 1891-January 1893
* Captain Charles C.Penrose Fitzgerald: January 1893-March 1895
* Captain William H. Hall: March 1895
* Captain Charles J. Balfour: March 1895-October 1896
* Captain
Burges Watson: October 1896-October 1899
* Captain Charles J. Barlow: October 1899-October 1902
* Captain
Gerald Walter Russell: October 1902-October 1904
* Captain John Denison: October 1904-October 1906
Rear-Admiral Superintendent, Pembroke Dockyard (1906-1915)
* Rear-Admiral
Henry C. Kingsford: October 1906-December 1908
* Rear-Admiral
Godfrey H.B. Mundy Godfrey may refer to:
People
* Godfrey (name) Godfrey is a given name and an English surname. The given name is derived from the Old French ''Godefroy'', a name composed of the elements: the first being either ''god'' ("god") or ''gōd'' ("good"); ...
: December 1908-December 1911
* Rear-Admiral
Alfred E.A. Grant: December 1911-September 1915
Captain-Superintendent, Pembroke Dockyard (1915-1926)
* Captain Frederick D. Gilpin Brown: September 1915-April 1918
* Captain John G. Armstrong: April 1918-February 1920
* Captain
David Murray Anderson: February 1920-April 1922
* Captain the Hon. Arthur B. S. Dutton: April 1922-July 1924
* Captain
Leonard A. B. Donaldson: July 1924 – 1926
Gallery of listed buildings on the site
File:Pembroke Dock Captain Superintendent's house and West Gate Lodge.jpg, Main Gate, W Lodge and Captain Superintendent's House
File:Pembroke Dock No.1 Dockyard terrace and East Gate Lodge.jpg, No.1 The Terrace (Surgeon's House and police accommodation)
File:Pembroke Dock 2-3 The Terrace.jpg, Nos. 2 & 3, The Terrace (accommodation for the Master Shipwright and Clerk of the Cheque)
File:Pembroke Dock 4-5 The Terrace.jpg, Nos. 4 & 5, The Terrace (accommodation for the Constructor and the Chief Engineer)
File:Pembroke Dockyard Surgery & Office.jpg, Superintendent's Office and Surgery
File:Former Guard House, Pembroke Dock (geograph 4753928).jpg, Guard House
File:Pembroke Dockyard Offices.jpg, Dockyard Offices
File:Pembroke Dockyard Storehouse.jpg, Store House
File:Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre (4062).jpg, ChapelListed building entry (Chapel)
/ref>
Notes
References
*
{{Navy Board, state=collapsed
Military installations in Wales
Pembroke Dock