In a recent comment John mentioned that the First Sea Lord’s flagship is HMS Victory. At lunch yesterday I was asked what the difference is between the FSL and the Admiral of the Fleet.
I now know but on the way turned up some interesting trivia. First, General Gwyn Jenkins is currently the First Sea Lord and is not an admiral or a lord. He served in the Royal Marines in Afghanistan with distinction and gallantry and subsequently in senior political appointments but he was made the ruler of the king’s navy without going to sea. Are you reminded of Sir Joseph Porter who sang that he “grew so rich that I was sent By a pocket borough into Parliament. I always voted at my party’s call, And I never thought of thinking for myself at all. I thought so little, they rewarded me By making me the Ruler of the Queen’s Navee!” (HMS Pinafore).
“The character of Sir Joseph Porter in terms of business background resembles that of bookseller William Henry Smith (1825-91), who had entered Parliament in 1868 and had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty in 1877, Smith having made a fortune through expanding his father’s bookselling business in the Strand by setting up railway station bookstalls and news-stands to become Britain’s biggest bookseller and newsagent. The position of First Lord of the Admiralty, equivalent to the American “Secretary of the Navy” remained a cabinet post until 1964. Smith remained First Lord until the fall of Disraeli’s Conservative government in 1880; however, wherever he went, people hummed “Sir Joseph Porter’s Song” and the nickname “Pinafore Smith” stuck. “‘When I was a lad’ was even played by a Royal Marines Band when he went down to launch a ship at Devonport, although strict orders had gone out from the Port Admiral that music from Pinafore should on no account be performed.” (The Victorian Web)
The First Sea Lord used to have rather grand accommodation in Admiralty Arch. When Churchill held the post in WWI he lived there. Today there are three flats for the use of unspecified government ministers (shag pads?) and some rooms that can be used for functions by the First Sea Lord or anyone else who can swing it. The rank, Admiral of the Fleet, is now held by the king. The last ordinary person to hold the rank was Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Benjamin Bathurst, who retired in 1995. Today the equivalent is Fleet Commander, and he is Vice Admiral Steve Moorhouse.
Like royal titles, in the armed services they come and go and change name. You will have noticed that in the Brigade there are no corporals with one stripe. Since the 1880s a corporal upon appointment is immediately promoted to a two stripe Lance Corporal. At the other end of the scale are five star generals, Field Marshals in the army, except there aren’t any since the 1990s so that UK and US stay in step.
Hello Christopher
You will be amused perhaps to know I was part of the Pinafore male chorus of sailors at school. (Girls convent!) I can recite the whole score and book to this day. Claire
Claire Walker,
More. More! MORE!!
Sorry to nitpick but, while you are correct about there being no one stripe lance corporals in certain regiments, two stripes indicates a full Corporal and a Lance Sergeant has three stripes.
Thank you and I have corrected my mistake.
Christopher,
I hesitate to question your wisdom, but I don’t think Churchill was ever First Sea Lord, the appointment denoting the professional head of the RN. He was, however First Lord of the Admiralty, a political post carrying some of the benefit you describe.
Probably apocryphal, but I heard that during one debate on harmonisation of nomenclature across the Armed Services, it was suggested that the RAF’s professional head should be First Air Lord with the obvious suggestion for the Army: First Land Lord was too much to chew!
Since the establishment of the Department of Defense in 1947, the Secretary of the Navy has not been a member of the Cabinet. Richard Nixon was recorded as telling Gerald Ford that anyone could be Secretary of the Navy–why, he (Nixon) had appointed John Warner (later Senator for Virginia, and nth husband of Elizabeth Taylor).
I wonder what happened to the Marine bandmaster. In the USMC, John Phillips Sousa, when bandmaster, was once placed under arrest after a dispute on selections with a superior officer.