Abstract
Christopher Buckey rightly acknowledges that the evolution of the Home Fleet has escaped ‘the historical limelight’ (3). However, Genesis of the Grand Fleet suitably addresses this omission by charting the evolution of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet, culminating in the formidable Grand Fleet of 1914. Buckey sets out to demonstrate the many and varied factors that shaped the Home Fleet and does so with suitable reference to the wider political landscape in Britain prior to the First World War amidst concerns over the maintenance of naval supremacy and probable conflict. However, he also explores the personal agendas and extraordinary characters that had a significant influence on the distribution and command of the Navy at this time. Buckey has conducted incredibly thorough research for this book and employs some underutilized resources, including multifarious Admiralty documents, which give a great level of detail to the analysis and authority to the argument. Each chapter considers the varied influences on the evolving Home Fleet along a broadly chronological framework, producing a clear and engaging narrative. Buckey initially sets out the condition of the Navy and its leadership from the time of the Diamond Jubilee Review of 1897, framing the period of study with reference to the majesty of naval pageantry at its outset and the solemnity of a fleet assembled for war at its conclusion.
Buckey acknowledges that early histories of the Home Fleet rely too heavily on the notion that its formation was solely a reaction to the growing ‘German threat’ (27). Whilst the key protagonists in the study of the Home Fleet – Arthur Marder, Nicholas Lambert and David Morgan-Owen – have tended towards economic or strategic explanations, Chapter 2 of Buckey's study argues that it was a far more complex interweaving of factors, such as a change in government, threat from the German Fleet, naval cost-cutting and the growing prominence of the torpedo. Specifically, the considerable expense of new capital ships and the diversion of significant sums towards manning the Navy was at odds with contemporary anti-militaristic sentiment and social reforms. Meanwhile, the perceived threat of French invasion rapidly gave way to concerns over Germany's increased shipbuilding and led to the reorganization of the Fleet and creation of the new Home Fleet under Admiral Sir John Fisher in 1907.
Buckey concludes that the Grand Fleet, assembled in 1914, represented a ‘clear line of evolution’ from the Home Fleet of 1907, but crucially renegotiates the events that comprised this evolution (248). Buckey ultimately concurs with Marder's assessment of a Home Fleet born from a process of reorganization to meet the ‘changing geopolitical situation’ (249), but goes further to address the financial motivations largely neglected by Marder in considering the importance of shrinking naval budgets and the demand for larger and more costly capital ships. However, due attention is also given to the influence of flotilla and auxiliary craft, and Churchill's plans for substitution in 1913. Buckey demonstrates that manoeuvres and ‘war games’, which aimed to emulate potential enemy engagements, further shaped the composition of the Fleet, in turn encouraging further torpedo craft and destroyers, and the addition of new communications technology. However, he argues that the Home Fleet did not rely unduly on flotilla defence, as has been previously asserted, and as such the capital ship prevailed.
Perhaps the most intriguing passages throughout are Buckey's examinations of the complex and often delicate relationships that underscored naval decision-making. Tensions between Fisher and Lord Charles Beresford play out as a soap opera, and Buckey captures the fiery disagreements that influenced naval policy at this time, including the infamous Beresford enquiry. Beresford's absolute condemnation of the Home Fleet in 1907 characterized an ongoing hostility that was endemic within the Admiralty, fostering an atmosphere that was obstructive to concurrent debate over budgetary limitations and naval policy. The discussion around these topics demonstrates how Admiralty pre-war planning was afflicted by considerable differences of opinion and conflicting personalities, which in turn influenced the Home Fleet's evolution. It is also exciting to see such rounded examinations of the figures who commanded the Fleet but who are often sidelined, especially Sir Francis Bridgeman, Sir William May and Sir George Callaghan, who receive due sympathetic attention. In addition, First Lord Prince Louis of Battenburg receives considerable attention, including his noteworthy response to the outbreak of war in July 1914.
Buckey does highlight that the limitations of space have meant that the social history of the Fleet and its men has been left unexplored, and the lower decks have not received attention owing to the scarcity of source material. Although duly acknowledged, the study would have been enriched by some acknowledgement of recruitment, training and welfare reforms, and this would surely have shed further light on manpower issues and training manoeuvres. There is also little analysis of the relationship between Britain and its Empire. Some attention is paid to the various attempts to encourage Canada to build battleships, and the intention to offload some of the burden of construction and finance to the dominions. However, the book largely omits the impact of the relationship between Britain, Australia and New Zealand at a time when the Navy wished to enhance its presence in the dominions and foster imperial sentiment.
In bringing together the multifarious influences on the evolution of the Home Fleet, Genesis of the Grand Fleet looks beyond strategy, facts and figures to consider not only the complex wider political and economic debates, but also the human aspect of naval command. Buckey pays much-needed attention to the development and application of cruisers, destroyers and coastal patrol craft in the reorganization of the Fleet, which provides a refreshing view of the various vessels without weighing down the narrative with technical details. Above all, Buckey achieves the original intention of showing how and why the Home Fleet developed with a level of detail and objectivity hitherto not attempted, contributing to current understanding of the formation of the Grand Fleet at the outbreak of the First World War. This is an insightful and engaging book for naval scholars the world over.