The Selborne-Fisher scheme, or Selborne scheme refers to an effort by

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 ...

Second Sea Lord The Second Sea Lord and Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (formerly Second Sea Lord) is deputy to the First Sea Lord and the second highest-ranking officer to currently serve in the Royal Navy and is responsible for personnel and naval shore establish ...

, approved by

William Palmer, 2nd Earl of Selborne William is a male given name of Germanic 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 conquest of Engl ...

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 ...

, in 1903 to combine the military (executive) and

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

branches 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 main goal was to return control over the movement of a ship to the military officer.

Background

In 1902, Fisher returned to the UK (having been Commander of the

Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...

) as Second Sea Lord in charge of personnel. At this time engineering officers, which had become increasingly important in the fleet as it became steadily more dependent upon machinery, were still largely looked down upon by command officers. Fisher considered it would be better for the navy if the two branches could be merged, as had been done in the past with navigation which similarly had once been a completely separate specialty. He wanted the Navy to have one system of supply, one system of entry and one system of training. His solution was to merge the cadet training of military and engineer officers, and revise the

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

so that it provided a suitable grounding to later go on to either path. The proposal was initially resisted by the remainder of the board of Admiralty, but Fisher convinced them of the benefits of the changes.

Integration

The scheme was announced in 1903, but the amalgamation of the military and engineering branches was completed in November 1905 when the

Cawdor Memorandum Cawdor ( gd, Caladair) is a village and parish in the Scottish Highlands, Highland council area, Scotland. The village is south-southwest of Nairn and east of Inverness. The village is in the Historic counties of Scotland, Historic County of N ...

was published, which integrated the enlisted portion of the engineering branch, the stokers, into the military branch. As part of the scheme, cadets would enter the service between the ages of 12 and 13 under the same conditions, would be trained together under the same system until they passed the rank of

sub-lieutenant Sub-lieutenant is usually a junior officer rank, used in armies, navies and air forces. In most armies, sub-lieutenant is the lowest officer rank. However, in Brazil, it is the highest non-commissioned rank, and in Spain, it is the second high ...

when they would be distributed between the military branch, the engineering branch, and the

Royal Marines The Corps of Royal Marines (RM), also known as the Royal Marines Commandos, are the UK's special operations capable commando force, amphibious light infantry and also one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. The Corps of Royal Marine ...

, although ultimately the latter only briefly participated in the scheme (see below). Three months after the scheme was announced, a new

Royal Naval College, Osborne The Royal Naval College, Osborne, was a training college for Royal Navy officer cadets on the Osborne House estate, Isle of Wight, established in 1903 and closed in 1921. Boys were admitted at about the age of thirteen to follow a course lasting ...

, was created at

Osborne House Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in t ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

's old home on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

. A new facility was also built in Dartmouth to replace

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...

, and once it was completed in 1910 the

Royal Naval Engineering College The Royal Naval Engineering College was a specialist establishment for the training of Royal Navy engineers. It was founded as Keyham College in 1880, new buildings were opened in Manadon, Devon in 1940 and the old college site at Keyham close ...

at Keyham was closed. The old rank of

mate Mate may refer to: Science * Mate, one of a pair of animals involved in: ** Mate choice, intersexual selection ** Mating * Multi-antimicrobial extrusion protein, or MATE, an efflux transporter family of proteins Person or title * Friendship ...

was revived in 1913 as part of the scheme for the accelerated promotion of promising enlisted personnel to become engineers. Mates ranked with, but after, sub-lieutenants and messed separately. In addition, promotion from Mate (E) was to the old Engineer Lieutenant rank, not to Lieutenant (E).

Integration reversed

After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, opposition to the scheme gave rise to a movement to re-segregate the executive and engineering branches because during the war, officers were not able to be equally proficient at both engineering and executive duties. As part of this movement, the Royal Naval Engineering College was reopened in 1919, and in 1922 engineering training began for

midshipmen A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...

, instead of sub-lieutenants. In 1921, the naval college at Osborne was no longer needed and was closed. By 1925, there were five branches of the Service: Military, Medical, Accountant, Naval Instructor, and Artisan. That year, an

Order in Council An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...

ended the scheme, splitting the service into 12 categories: Executive, Engineer, Medical, Dental, Accountant and Instructor Officers, Chaplains, Shipwrights, Ordinance and Electrical Officers, Schoolmasters and Wardmasters. Shortly afterwards, the ranks of Midshipman (E) and Sub-lieutenant (E) appeared in Orders in Council for the first time. In 1931 mate was abandoned again, and mates were re-mustered as sub-lieutenants. The scheme left behind common entry, so all candidates for the engineering branch entered the Navy by the same route as those in the executive branch.

Royal Marines

Fisher's reforms included the inclusion of officers of the Royal Marines in the common entry scheme of 1907. Only after undergoing preliminary training, and upon reaching the rank of lieutenant, were sea-going officers of all branches to be given the option of choosing the Royal Marines as a career specialisation. During the three years that this aspect of the Selbourne Scheme was in force, only two entrants choose to become marine officers; a phenomenon accounted for by more limited career prospects and possibly social prejudice within the Royal Navy of the period. In 1912 Fisher acknowledged the problem and separate entry was restored for the Royal Marines.

Footnotes

References