Fourth Sea Lord

The position of Fourth Sea Lord, until 1904 the Junior Sea Lord or Junior Naval Lord, was a member of the Board of Admiralty and the naval officer responsible for supply in the Royal Navy.

History

Under the provisions of the Order in Council of 14 January, 1869, the Junior Naval Lord was assigned to assist the First Naval Lord and responsible to the First Lord of the Admiralty for "the administration of so much of the business as relates to the "Personnel" of the Navy, and for the movement and condition of Your Majesty's Fleet." Under the Order in Council of 19 March, 1872, which succeeded it he, along with the First Naval Lord and Second Naval Lord, was "to be responsible to the First Lord of the Admiralty for the administration of so much of the business relating to the Personnel of the Navy, and to the movement and condition of Your Majesty's Fleet, as shall be assigned to them or each of them, from time to time, by the First Lord."

In 1904 the title was officially altered to Fourth Sea Lord, and, along with the First and Second Sea Lords, was "responsible to the First Lord of the Admiralty for the administration of so much of the general business connected with Your Majesty's Navy, and with the movement and condition of Your Majesty's Fleet and with the "Personnel" of that Fleet, as shall be assigned to them or each of them, from time to time, by the First Lord."

By Order in Council of 21 December, 1906, the emoluments of the Fourth Sea Lord were raised from £1,000 a year to £1,500 a year, in addition to Naval Half Pay.

By Order in Council of 23 October, 1917, the office of Fourth Sea Lord received the designation Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Supplies and Transport.

Work

Sir J. Edmund Commerell told the House of Commons in 1888 that when he had served as Junior Naval Lord he had had "enough to do" from half ten in the morning to half five or six in the evening. He complained that he had been left with too many details which "would have been much better not to have been left to the Naval Lords of the Admiralty."

Duties

[show]July, 1866.
Victualling Department.
Store Department.
Gunnery and Returns.
Dockyard Craft.
Transport Service and Emigration Ships.
Passages.
Convict Service.
Appointment of Paymasters, Assistant Paymasters in Charge, Clerks, and Assistant Clerks.
Store Allowances.
Articles on Trial and Experiments (except in Steam).
Salvage of Naval Stores.
Ships Libraries.

[show]December, 1869.
Duties shared with First Naval Lord.
Ships in Commission.
Manning of the Fleet.
Distribution of the Fleet.
Marines and Marine Artillery.
Coast Guard, except Pay and Buildings.
Naval Coast Volunteers.
Royal Naval Reserve.
Pensioners, when called out.
Appointments of Commanders of Ships of the Line and Frigates.
Appointments of— Lieutenants (exclusive of Lieutenant in Command). Staff Commanders. Navigating Lieutenants, &c. Sub-Lieutenants. Midshipmen and Naval Cadets. Paymasters. Assistant Paymasters. Clerks. Clerks. Assistant Clerks. Warrant Officers.
Royal Naval College.
Discipline.
Courts Martial and Courts of Inquiry.
Punishments and Returns.
Removals of "R".
Protection of Trade and Fisheries.
Signals.
Royal Humane Society's Medals.
Good Conduct Medals.
—
Hydrographical Department.
Transport Service.
Conveyance of Troops.
Passages.
Convict Service.
Coaling.
Medical Department.
Hospitals and Hospital Ships.
Appointments of Medical Officers.
Victualling Department.
Full Pay of Officers and Seamen.
Half Pay of Officers of all Ranks.
Table Money of Officers.
Debts of Officers.
Allowances for Lodging and Travelling.
Store Allowances.
Compensation for Losses by Officers and Seamen.
Pensions.
Greenwich Hospital, as regards Officers and Men.
Prize and Admiralty Courts.
Collision at Sea.
General Salvage Questions.
Salvage of Naval Stores.
Pirates—Bounty.
Pilotage.

[show]December, 1872.
1.—Transport Department.
2.—Medical Department.
3.—Victualling Department.
4.—Hospitals and Hospital Ships.
5.—Passages.
6.—Convict Service.
7.—Appointments of— Medical Officers. Paymasters. Assistant Paymasters. Clerks. Assistant Clerks. Engineers. Carpenters.
8.—Full Pay.
9.—Half Pay.
10.—Table Money.
11.—Store Allowances.
12.—Compensations and Allowances—as regard the Fleet.
13.—Debts of Officers and Men.
14.—Coaling the Fleet.
15.—Ships' Libraries.
16.—Prize Money.
17.—Dead and Run Men's Effects.

[show]April, 1875.
1.—Transport Department.
2.—Medical Department.
3.—Victualling Department.
4.—Hospitals and Hospital Ships.
5.—Passages.
6.—Convict Service.
7.—Appointments of— Medical Officers. Paymasters. Assistant Paymasters. Clerks. Assistant Clerks. Engineers. Carpenters.
8.—Full Pay.
9.—Half Pay.
10.—Table Money.
11.—Store Allowances.
12.—Compensations and Allowances—as regard the Fleet.
13.—Debts of Officers and Men.
14.—Coaling the Fleet.
15.—Ships' Libraries.
16.—Prize Money.
17.—Dead and Run Men's Effects.
18.—Pilotage.
19.—General Salvage Questions.
20.—Salvage of Naval Stores.
21.—Pirates—Bounty.
22.—Naval Savings Banks.

[show]1 January, 1904.
1.—Transport Service, including Hired Auxiliary Vessels other than Armed Merchant Cruisers.
2.—Victualling Service.
3.—Fleet Coaling Service.
4.—Passages.
5.—Consumable Fleet Stores.
6.—Full and Half Pay.
7.—Allowances and Compensations—as regard the Fleet, including Table Money, Prize Money and Bounty for Pirates, Pilotage and Surveying Pay.
8.—Debts of Officers and Men.
9.—Ships' Libraries.
10.—Uniform Regulations.
11.—General Salvage Questions and Salvage of Naval Stores.
12.—Naval Savings Banks.
13.—Freight of Treasure.
14.—Naval and Marine Pensions and Widows' Pensions.

[show]20 October, 1904.
1.—The Transport Service, including Hired Auxiliary Vessels other than Armed Merchant Cruisers. Passages.
2.—Entire control of Fleet Coaling and Victualling Services; Naval Stores for the Fleet and for all other purposes, and all questions relating thereto (except as provided for under Controller); Ordnance and Medical Stores, &c., and all questions relating thereto.
3.—Full and Half Pay; Allowances and Compensations, including Table Money, Prize Questions, Pilotage and Surveying Pay and Freight of Treasure and all Extra Payments. Debts of Officers and Men, Naval and Marine Pensions and Widows' Pensions. Character, Conduct, and Badge Questions. Naval Savings Banks.
4.—Medals. Uniform Regulations.
5.—Naval Prisons. Deserters—Rewards for Apprehension; Removals of "R."
6.—General Salvage Money Questions, and Money Demands for Salvage of Naval Stores.
7.—Collisions.

Appointments

• Rear-Admiral The Rt. Hon. Lord John Hay, 1868
• Rear-Admiral Sir John W. Tarleton, 1871
• Rear-Admiral Frederick B. P. Seymour, 1872 – March, 1874^[Inference]
• Rear-Admiral The Rt. Hon. Lord Gilford, 6 March, 1874 – 12 May, 1880
• Rear-Admiral J. Edmund Commerell, 1879
• Rear-Admiral Anthony H. Hoskins, 13 May, 1880 – 7 July, 1882
• Rear-Admiral Frederick W. Richards, 1882
• Rear-Admiral Sir William N. W. Hewett, 25 May, 1885 – 18 March, 1886
• Rear-Admiral William Codrington, 1885 – 1886
• Rear-Admiral Sir James E. Erskine, early 1886
• Rear-Admiral Charles W. Beresford, 9 August, 1886 – 29 January, 1888
• Rear-Admiral Charles F. Hotham, 1888 – 1889
• Rear-Admiral Frederick G. D. Bedford, 17 December, 1889 – 9 August, 1892
• Rear-Admiral Lord Walter Kerr, 25 August, 1892
• Rear-Admiral Gerard H. U. Noel, 1 November, 1893 – 12 January, 1898
• Rear-Admiral Arthur W. Moore, 31 December, 1898 – 21 January, 1901
• Rear-Admiral John Durnford, 21 January, 1901
• Rear-Admiral Frederick S. Inglefield, 11 February, 1904 – 7 February, 1907
• Vice-Admiral Sir A. Leigh Winsloe, 8 February, 1907 – 24 January, 1910
• Rear-Admiral Charles E. Madden, 25 January, 1910 – 5 December, 1911
• Rear-Admiral William C. Pakenham, 5 December, 1911 – 1 December, 1913
• Captain Cecil F. Lambert, 1 December, 1913 – 4 December, 1916  (as Commodore, First Class from 5 November, 1914)
• Rear-Admiral Lionel Halsey, 4 December, 1916 – 31 May, 1917
• Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh H. D. Tothill, 31 May, 1917 – 16 June, 1919
• Rear-Admiral Sir A. Ernle M. Chatfield, 18 June, 1919 – 15 March, 1920
• Rear-Admiral The Hon. Algernon D. E. H. Boyle, 15 March, 1920
• Rear-Admiral John D. Kelly, 1 April, 1924 – 30 April, 1927
• Vice-Admiral William Fisher, 30 April, 1927 – 2 April, 1928
• Vice-Admiral Vernon Haggard, 2 April, 1928 – 21 April, 1930
• Vice-Admiral Lionel Preston, 21 April, 1930 – 20 September, 1932
• Rear-Admiral Geoffrey Blake, 1932
• Vice-Admiral Percy L. H. Noble, 18 January, 1935 – September, 1937
• Vice-Admiral Geoffrey Arbuthnot, 1 October, 1937 – 1 April, 1941
• Vice-Admiral Sir John H. D. Cunningham, 1 March, 1941 – 5 June, 1943
• Vice-Admiral Frank H. Pegram, 1943 – 1944
• Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur F. E. Palliser, 20 March, 1944 – 1946
• Vice-Admiral Sir Douglas B. Fisher, 1946 – 1948
• Vice-Admiral Sir Herbert A. Packer, 1948 – 1950
• Vice-Admiral The Earl Mountbatten, 1950 – 1952
• Vice-Admiral Sir Sydney M. Raw, 1952 – 1954
• Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick R. Parham, 1952 – 1954
• Vice-Admiral Sir Robert D. Watson, 1955 – 1958
• Vice-Admiral Sir Arthur G. V. Hubback, 1958 – 1959
• Vice-Admiral Sir Nicholas A. Copeman, 1959 – 1960

Naval Assistant to the Fourth Sea Lord

• Captain Lewis W. Braithwaite, 31 May, 1917 – July, 1919  (and for charge of Auxiliary Patrol Service office)
• Commander Thomas H. Binney, 13 July, 1919 – 15 March, 1920
• Captain Basil G. Washington, 15 March, 1920 – 31 March, 1922

Bibliography

• Admiralty. Return "of the Distribution of Business under the Lords of the Admiralty under the Old and New Arrangement for conducting the business of the Department." H.C. 84, 1869. Copy in Greene Papers. National Maritime Museum. GEE/2.
• Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division (1929). The Naval Staff of the Admiralty. Its Work and Development. B.R. 1845 (late C.B. 3013). Copy No. 8 at The National Archives. ADM 234/434.

See Also

• Wikipedia