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[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] Sir '''Astley Cooper Key''', G.C.B., F.R.S., F.R.G.S., D.C.L., P.C. ([[18 January]], [[1821]] – [[3 March]], [[1888]]) was an officer of the [[Royal Navy]].
[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] {{RIGHTHONSIR}} '''Astley Cooper Key''', G.C.B., F.R.S., F.R.G.S., D.C.L., P.C. (18 January, 1821 – 3 March, 1888) was an officer of the [[Royal Navy]].


==Early Life & Career==
==Early Life & Career==
Key was born at St Thomas Street, London, on [[18 January]], [[1821]], the son of Charles Aston Key (1793–1849) and his wife Anne, née Cooper.  He entered the navy in August 1833, attending the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, where he won the annual silver medal competition.  He passed his lieutenant's examination in August 1840, and after study on the Excellent was commissioned on 22 December 1842. In February 1843 he joined the Curaçao for the east coast of South America, where in 1844 he transferred to the steam frigate Gorgon (Captain Charles Hotham), a reflection of his decision to specialize in steam. On 10 May the Gorgon was driven ashore near Montevideo. Key, using his training at Excellent, played a leading part in refloating her.  He served at the battle of Obligado (fought against the Argentinians on the Rio Parana on 20 November 1845), in which he was slightly wounded, and he was promoted commander as of 18 November.  Between 1847 and 1850 he commanded the steamer Bulldog in the Mediterranean, being posted on 11 October 1850. In 1853 he took command of the screw frigate Amphion, and served in the Baltic in 1854 and 1855, taking a prominent part at Bomarsund, Sveaborg, and operations in the Gulf of Viborg. On 5 July 1855 he was nominated CB.  In 1856 he was appointed to the steam battleship Sans Pareil, to command the inshore gunboat division.  Shortly after this, in 1856, he married Charlotte Lavinia McNeill.  In 1857 he took his ship to China with a detachment of marines, which he took to Calcutta during the early stages of the Indian mutiny, before returning to China to command a battalion of the naval brigade at the capture of Canton (Guangzhou) (28–9 December 1857).
{{DNB}}
Key entered the navy in 1833, passed his examination in 1840, and on 22 Dec. 1842 was awarded the lieutenant's commission, at that time competed for in a special course of study, on board the {{UK-Excellent|f=t}} and at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. In February 1843 he joined the ''Curaçoa'' going out to the east coast of South America, where, in February 1844, he was transferred to the ''Gorgon'', with Captain [[Charles Hotham]]. On 10 May the ''Gorgon'', then at anchor off Monte Video, parted her cables in a violent gale, and was driven on shore, far above high-water mark. When the sea returned to its usual level, the ship was dry to within a few feet of her stern-post, and imbedded in the sand to a depth of thirteen feet. Key was only the junior lieutenant, but his scientific training enabled him to take a prominent share in the work of getting her afloat, and at once marked him as a rising man.  


In 1859–60 Key served on the royal commission on national defence, and between 1860 and 1863 as captain of the steam reserve at Devonport. On the commission he demonstrated his expertise in naval technology, but also a glaring misunderstanding of the basis of British strategy.  He had been appointed on the strength of his known views in favour of local coast defence to a commission predisposed to recommend forts, although British imperial and national security depended on the ability to use the sea not merely to prevent an invasion.  In 1864 he became captain of the Excellent, and superintendent of the Royal Naval College.  On 20 November 1866 he was promoted rear-admiral and became the first director of naval ordnance, a post he had helped to define.  Here he demonstrated a preference for close action and simple muzzle-loading guns.  In 1869 he served as admiral superintendent at Portsmouth and later Malta, before establishing the new Royal Naval College at Greenwich between 1872 and 1876.  In April 1873 he became vice-admiral and in May he was appointed KCB. His wife died on 30 December 1874.  In early 1876 he took command of the North American station, where he married Evelyn Bartolucci in October 1877 at Halifax, Nova Scotia.  She was the daughter of an Italian dancing master and younger than Key's own eldest daughter. He returned in March 1878 to command the Baltic fleet formed during the Russian war scare. On 15 June 1879 he was appointed principal naval aide-de-camp to the queen, and in August became first naval lord, a post he held until the summer of 1885.  When he left office he was granted a special pension of £500 per annum.
Key was appointed to command the tender ''Fanny'', and after the action at Obligado (20 Nov. 1845), in which he was slightly wounded, he was promoted to the rank of {{CommRN}}, his commission being antedated to 18 Nov.  From 1847 to 1850, he commanded the steamer ''Bulldog'' in the Mediterranean, and on 11 Oct. 1850 was advanced to post-rank.  


Key was an early example of an officer who made his career through the mastery of new technology.  Unfortunately for the navy, he never developed an equivalent comprehension of strategic needs.  He was an obsessive centralizer, and revelled in the minutiae of administration, to the exclusion of the wider issues of policy. This was particularly problematic during the prolonged absences of the first lord of the Admiralty, Lord Northbrook, in Egypt, when he acted as the entire Board of Admiralty.
During the Russian war of 1854–5, Key commanded the frigate ''Amphion'' in the Baltic, took part in the reduction of Bomarsund and in the bombardment of Sveaborg, and was repeatedly engaged with the enemy's batteries, especially in the gulf of Viborg. On 5 July 1855 he was nominated a C.B. In 1857 he went out to China in command of the screw line-of-battle ship ''Sanspareil'', in which he was at once sent with a detachment of marines to Calcutta; and, bringing them back when the urgent need had passed, he commanded a battalion of the naval brigade at the capture of Canton (28–9 Dec. 1857), and a few days later with his own hands seized Yeh, the Chinese governor, as he was seeking to escape in the disguise of a coolie.<ref>OLIPHANT, Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China, i. 141.</ref>


Key became first naval lord in breach of a compact he had made with Geoffrey Hornby and Beauchamp Seymour that they would all refuse the post without some reform of the Admiralty.  He did so apparently from financial embarrassment resulting from his recent second marriage and the marriage of his eldest daughter. A weak character, Key allowed his wife to become a major channel for influence. She was known as ‘the Key to promotion’.  Key had his own small group of followers in the service, mainly men of his own technical bent, who were referred to as ‘the bunch of Keys’.  Notable among them was John Fisher, who distanced himself from his old mentor after Key left office.  Key's six years at the Admiralty witnessed steady, if unspectacular, progress in all areas.  Northbrook was happy to leave naval administration to Key, who was happy to keep the estimates down to the figures he was given.  Key was still committed to coast defence and had little comprehension of the navy's role in commerce protection.  Under pressure from increasing French construction, he sanctioned the building of six Admiral class ironclads, ships noted more for the weaknesses caused by insufficient displacement than the success of the new breech-loading guns, which were a feature of the Northbrook board's term of office.  The 1884 agitation for increased naval expenditure, which resulted in the ‘Northbrook programme’, was ill timed; not only was the navy markedly superior to the possible danger, but many of the programme's ships would be obsolete before completion.  It was a mark of Key's isolation that in the absence of Northbrook his views were hardly noted by a government anxious to escape censure.  When the Panjdeh crisis came in 1885, long signalled by Russian advances, the Admiralty was better prepared than it had been in 1878.  Key could call on information from the foreign intelligence committee, set up in 1882, the results of the 1878 mobilization, and a number of new ships.
From 1858 to 1860 Key was a member of the Royal Commission on National Defence; in 1860 he was appointed captain of the steam reserve at Devonport, and in 1863 captain of {{UK-Excellent}} and superintendent of the Royal Naval College. On 20 Nov. 1866 he was promoted to be {{RearRN}}; he had already been consulted by the admiralty about the organisation of the new department of naval ordnance, and was now appointed to the office of director, which he held till the summer of 1869, when he accepted the post of superintendent of [[Portsmouth Royal Dockyard]], from which he was shortly afterwards moved to Malta, at once as superintendent of the dockyard and second in command in the Mediterranean.  


If the mark of successful administration was to leave things better than before, Key's time in office was well spent. He has been criticized for not doing more, particularly on the strategic front, but this ignores the overriding primacy of the battle fleet in national strategy, and the real naval requirements close to home.  Key was not an intellectual, and had no elevated ideas on sea power, but in this he was a man of his times.  The navy spent the middle years of the century coming to terms with technology, and in the long peace after 1856 it was unsurprising that men such as Key—and his successor in several posts, Arthur Hood—should reach the highest position.  By concentrating on practicalities, they provided the navy with the material that was vital to its strength. It was left to another generation to expound the principles of maritime strategy. The contrast between Key and his two rivals for the post of senior naval lord in 1879, Hornby and Seymour, was striking. Key lacked their experience afloat, and demonstrated little leadership. He had few followers, and evoked no lasting loyalty.
In 1872, when it was determined to establish the Royal Naval College at Greenwich on a much enlarged plan, Key was called home for the purpose of organising it. The whole scheme was drawn out by him, and the college, with Key as president, was opened in February 1873. On 30 April 1873 he was advanced to be vice-admiral, and on 24 May was nominated a K.C.B. He continued at Greenwich till the beginning of 1876, when he was appointed commander-in-chief on the North American and West Indian station. On attaining the rank of admiral, 21 March 1878, he returned to England, and for a couple of months in the summer had command of an evolutionary squadron in the Channel. In June 1879 he was appointed principal naval aide-de-camp to the queen, and in August first naval lord of the admiralty, in which post he remained till the change of ministry in the summer of 1885, when he was granted a special pension of 500l. a year, in addition to his half-pay.  On 18 January, 1886, he was placed on the Retired List.{{Gaz|25551|329|22 January, 1886}} The G.C.B. was conferred on him on 24 Nov. 1882, and on 11 Aug. 1884 he was appointed a member of the privy council. He was also F.R.S., F.R.G.S., and D.C.L.; and was author of ‘A Narrative of the Recovery of H.M.S. Gorgon, stranded in the Bay of Monte Video, 10 May 1844,’ 8vo, 1847. After his retirement he resided at Maidenhead, and there he died on 3 March 1888. He was twice married, and left issue.


On 24 November 1882 Key was nominated GCB, and on 11 August 1884 he was sworn of the privy council.  He was at various times elected FRS and FRGS and was awarded an honorary DCL. After retirement he lived at Laggan House, Maidenhead, where he died on 3 March 1888. His second wife survived him.
Just a month before his death, Cooper Key felt compelled to write to ''The Times'' vigorously defending his Board of Admiralty against former [[Junior Naval Lord]] Captain [[Charles William de la Poer Beresford, First Baron Beresford|Lord Charles Beresford]]'s claim that "there was no shred of system or plan for organization for war in 1885 so as to have enabled our fleets, small as they were, to be in a position to fight if called on."<ref>"The Naval Intelligence Department" (Letters to the Editor).  ''The Times''. Friday, 3 February, 1888. Issue '''32299''', col B, p. 7.</ref>


==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
<small>
{{refbegin}}
*"Death of Sir Astley Cooper Key" (Obituaries).  ''The Times''.  Monday, 5 March, 1888.  Issue '''32325''', col F, pg. 9.
*"Death of Sir Astley Cooper Key" (Obituaries).  ''The Times''.  Monday, 5 March, 1888.  Issue '''32325''', col F, pg. 9.
*Colomb, Vice-Admiral Philip Howard (1898).  ''Memoirs of Admiral the Right Honble. Sir Astley Cooper Key''.  London: Methuen & Co.
*[[Philip Howard Colomb (1831 &ndash; 1899)|Colomb, Vice-Admiral P. H.]] (1898).  ''Memoirs of Admiral the Right Honble. Sir Astley Cooper Key''.  London: Methuen & Co.
</small>
{{refend}}


==Service Record==
==Service Records==
*[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7894099&queryType=1&resultcount=1 ADM 196/36]
{{refbegin}}
*{{TNA|ADM 196/36.|D7578633}}
*{{TNA|ADM 196/1.|D7580161}}
{{refend}}


[[Category:1821 births|Key]]
<div name=fredbot:appts>{{TabApptsBegin}}
[[Category:1888 deaths|Key]]
{{TabNaval}}
[[Category:Personalities|Key]]
{{TabApptsRow|Preceded by<br>'''[[Richard Strode Hewlett|Richard S. Hewlett]]'''|'''[[H.M.S. Excellent (Gunnery Training School)|Captain of H.M.S. ''Excellent'']]'''<br>30 Jun, 1863{{NLDec64|p. 185}}|Succeeded by<br>'''[[Arthur William Acland Hood, First Baron Hood|Arthur W. A. Hood]]'''}}
[[Category:Directors of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes|Key]]
{{TabApptsRow|Preceded by<br>'''New Appointment'''|'''[[Naval Ordnance Department (Royal Navy)|Director-General of Naval Ordnance]]'''<br>3 Sep, 1866<ref>Key service record.  {{TNA|ADM 196/36.}}  f. 743.</ref>|Succeeded by<br>'''[[Arthur William Acland Hood, First Baron Hood|Arthur W. A. Hood]]'''<br><small>as '''Director of Naval Ordnance'''</small>}}
[[Category:First Sea Lords|Key]]
{{TabApptsRow|Preceded by<br>'''[[George Greville Wellesley|George G. Wellesley]]'''|'''[[Portsmouth Royal Dockyard|Admiral Superintendent, Portsmouth Dockyard]]'''<br>1 Jul, 1869 &ndash; 25 May, 1870|Succeeded by<br>'''[[William Houston Stewart|William H. Stewart]]'''}}
[[Category:Royal Navy Admirals|Key]]
{{TabApptsRow|Preceded by<br>'''[[Edward Gennys Fanshawe|Edward G. Fanshawe]]'''|'''[[Malta Dockyard|Admiral Superintendent, Malta Dockyard]]'''<br>1870 &ndash; 1872|Succeeded by<br>'''[[Edward Augustus Inglefield|Edward A. Inglefield]]'''}}
[[Category:Royal Navy Flag Officers|Key]]
{{TabApptsRow|Preceded by<br>'''New Appointment'''|'''[[Royal Naval College, Greenwich|President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich]]'''<br>2 Jan, 1873<ref>Key Service Record.  {{TNA|ADM 196/36.}}  f. 743.</ref>|Succeeded by<br>'''[[Edward Gennys Fanshawe|Edward G. Fanshawe]]'''}}
{{TabApptsRow|Preceded by<br>'''[[George Greville Wellesley|Sir George G. Wellesley]]'''|'''[[North America and West Indies Station|Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station]]'''<br>1875 &ndash; 1878|Succeeded by<br>'''[[Edward Augustus Inglefield|Sir Edward A. Inglefield]]'''}}
{{TabApptsRow|Preceded by<br>'''[[George Greville Wellesley|George G. Wellesley]]'''|'''[[First Sea Lord|First Naval Lord]]'''<br>15 Aug, 1879{{UKNavalStaff|p. 118}}|Succeeded by<br>'''[[Arthur William Acland Hood, First Baron Hood|Sir Arthur W. A. Hood]]'''}}
{{TabCourt}}
{{TabApptsRow|Preceded by<br>'''[[Henry Keppel|The Hon. Sir Henry Keppel]]'''|'''[[First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp|First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp]]'''<br>15 Jun, 1879<ref>Key Service Record.  {{TNA|ADM 196/36.}}  f. 743.</ref>|Succeeded by<br>'''[[Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby|Sir Geoffrey T. Phipps Hornby]]'''}}
{{TabEnd}}
</div name=fredbot:appts>
 
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Key, Astley Cooper}}
 
{{CatPerson|UK|1821|1888}}
{{CatAdm|UK}}
{{CatBritannia|Pre}}
 
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society]]
{{CatRN}}

Latest revision as of 15:25, 7 April 2022

Admiral THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR Astley Cooper Key, G.C.B., F.R.S., F.R.G.S., D.C.L., P.C. (18 January, 1821 – 3 March, 1888) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

Early Life & Career

This article may temporarily contain text from an edition of the Dictionary of National Biography which is in the Public Domain.

Key entered the navy in 1833, passed his examination in 1840, and on 22 Dec. 1842 was awarded the lieutenant's commission, at that time competed for in a special course of study, on board the gunnery training school Excellent and at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. In February 1843 he joined the Curaçoa going out to the east coast of South America, where, in February 1844, he was transferred to the Gorgon, with Captain Charles Hotham. On 10 May the Gorgon, then at anchor off Monte Video, parted her cables in a violent gale, and was driven on shore, far above high-water mark. When the sea returned to its usual level, the ship was dry to within a few feet of her stern-post, and imbedded in the sand to a depth of thirteen feet. Key was only the junior lieutenant, but his scientific training enabled him to take a prominent share in the work of getting her afloat, and at once marked him as a rising man.

Key was appointed to command the tender Fanny, and after the action at Obligado (20 Nov. 1845), in which he was slightly wounded, he was promoted to the rank of Commander, his commission being antedated to 18 Nov. From 1847 to 1850, he commanded the steamer Bulldog in the Mediterranean, and on 11 Oct. 1850 was advanced to post-rank.

During the Russian war of 1854–5, Key commanded the frigate Amphion in the Baltic, took part in the reduction of Bomarsund and in the bombardment of Sveaborg, and was repeatedly engaged with the enemy's batteries, especially in the gulf of Viborg. On 5 July 1855 he was nominated a C.B. In 1857 he went out to China in command of the screw line-of-battle ship Sanspareil, in which he was at once sent with a detachment of marines to Calcutta; and, bringing them back when the urgent need had passed, he commanded a battalion of the naval brigade at the capture of Canton (28–9 Dec. 1857), and a few days later with his own hands seized Yeh, the Chinese governor, as he was seeking to escape in the disguise of a coolie.[1]

From 1858 to 1860 Key was a member of the Royal Commission on National Defence; in 1860 he was appointed captain of the steam reserve at Devonport, and in 1863 captain of Excellent and superintendent of the Royal Naval College. On 20 Nov. 1866 he was promoted to be Rear-Admiral; he had already been consulted by the admiralty about the organisation of the new department of naval ordnance, and was now appointed to the office of director, which he held till the summer of 1869, when he accepted the post of superintendent of Portsmouth Royal Dockyard, from which he was shortly afterwards moved to Malta, at once as superintendent of the dockyard and second in command in the Mediterranean.

In 1872, when it was determined to establish the Royal Naval College at Greenwich on a much enlarged plan, Key was called home for the purpose of organising it. The whole scheme was drawn out by him, and the college, with Key as president, was opened in February 1873. On 30 April 1873 he was advanced to be vice-admiral, and on 24 May was nominated a K.C.B. He continued at Greenwich till the beginning of 1876, when he was appointed commander-in-chief on the North American and West Indian station. On attaining the rank of admiral, 21 March 1878, he returned to England, and for a couple of months in the summer had command of an evolutionary squadron in the Channel. In June 1879 he was appointed principal naval aide-de-camp to the queen, and in August first naval lord of the admiralty, in which post he remained till the change of ministry in the summer of 1885, when he was granted a special pension of 500l. a year, in addition to his half-pay. On 18 January, 1886, he was placed on the Retired List.[2] The G.C.B. was conferred on him on 24 Nov. 1882, and on 11 Aug. 1884 he was appointed a member of the privy council. He was also F.R.S., F.R.G.S., and D.C.L.; and was author of ‘A Narrative of the Recovery of H.M.S. Gorgon, stranded in the Bay of Monte Video, 10 May 1844,’ 8vo, 1847. After his retirement he resided at Maidenhead, and there he died on 3 March 1888. He was twice married, and left issue.

Just a month before his death, Cooper Key felt compelled to write to The Times vigorously defending his Board of Admiralty against former Junior Naval Lord Captain Lord Charles Beresford's claim that "there was no shred of system or plan for organization for war in 1885 so as to have enabled our fleets, small as they were, to be in a position to fight if called on."[3]

Bibliography

  • "Death of Sir Astley Cooper Key" (Obituaries). The Times. Monday, 5 March, 1888. Issue 32325, col F, pg. 9.
  • Colomb, Vice-Admiral P. H. (1898). Memoirs of Admiral the Right Honble. Sir Astley Cooper Key. London: Methuen & Co.

Service Records

Naval Appointments
Preceded by
Richard S. Hewlett 		Captain of H.M.S. Excellent
30 Jun, 1863[4] 		Succeeded by
Arthur W. A. Hood
Preceded by
New Appointment 		Director-General of Naval Ordnance
3 Sep, 1866[5] 		Succeeded by
Arthur W. A. Hood
as Director of Naval Ordnance
Preceded by
George G. Wellesley 		Admiral Superintendent, Portsmouth Dockyard
1 Jul, 1869 – 25 May, 1870 		Succeeded by
William H. Stewart
Preceded by
Edward G. Fanshawe 		Admiral Superintendent, Malta Dockyard
1870 – 1872 		Succeeded by
Edward A. Inglefield
Preceded by
New Appointment 		President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich
2 Jan, 1873[6] 		Succeeded by
Edward G. Fanshawe
Preceded by
Sir George G. Wellesley 		Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station
1875 – 1878 		Succeeded by
Sir Edward A. Inglefield
Preceded by
George G. Wellesley 		First Naval Lord
15 Aug, 1879[7] 		Succeeded by
Sir Arthur W. A. Hood
Court Appointments
Preceded by
The Hon. Sir Henry Keppel 		First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp
15 Jun, 1879[8] 		Succeeded by
Sir Geoffrey T. Phipps Hornby

Footnotes

  1. ↑ OLIPHANT, Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to China, i. 141.
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 25551. p. 329. 22 January, 1886.
  3. ↑ "The Naval Intelligence Department" (Letters to the Editor). The Times. Friday, 3 February, 1888. Issue 32299, col B, p. 7.
  4. ↑ The Navy List. (December, 1864). p. 185.
  5. ↑ Key service record. The National Archives. ADM 196/36. f. 743.
  6. ↑ Key Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/36. f. 743.
  7. ↑ The Naval Staff of the Admiralty. p. 118.
  8. ↑ Key Service Record. The National Archives. ADM 196/36. f. 743.

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