Board of Admiralty

The Board of Admiralty was formerly the authority charged with the command and administration of the Royal Navy from 1831 to 1964. Previously the navy had been administered by a Navy Board and operationally controlled by the Board of Admiralty exercising the office of Lord High Admiral.

The term Admiralty has become synomynous with the command and control of the Royal Navy, partly personified in the Board of Admiralty and also in the Admiralty buildings in London from where operations were in large part directed.

History

The office of Admiral of England (or Lord Admiral and later Lord High Admiral) was created around 1400, though there were before this Admirals of the Northern and Western Seas. In 1546 King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine, later to become the Navy Board, to oversee administrative affairs of the naval service. Operational control of the Navy remained the responsibility of the Lord High Admiral, who was one of the nine Great Officers of State.

In 1628, Charles I put the office of Lord High Admiral into commission and control of the Royal Navy passed to a committee in the form of the Board of Admiralty. The office of Lord High Admiral passed a number of times in and out of commission until 1709, after which the office was almost permanently in commission (the last Lord High Admiral being the future King William IV in the early 19th century).

In 1831 the Navy Board was abolished as a separate entity and its duties and responsibilities were given over to the Admiralty.

Officially, the Board of Admiralty was composed of Commissioners for Exercising the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom & Ireland. The Board was divided between a number of Naval Officers appointed to act as Naval Lords (known in the 20th Century as Sea Lords) and Civil Lords, politicians who provided executive civilian oversight.

From 1805 the Naval Lords were given specific duties.

• First Sea Lord; Professional head of the Royal Navy
• Second Sea Lord; Responsible for manning the fleet
• Third Sea Lord; Responsible for equipping the fleet
• Fourth Sea Lord; Responsible for supplying the fleet

The leading Civil Lord as appointed by the government of the day became known as the First Lord of the Admiralty. A Secretary to the Board, a civilian, was a permamanent member. On occasion additional Civil lords could be appointed, especially in time of war.

In 1822 the quorum of the Admiralty Board was reduced from three to two if less than six commissioners were present. In 1832 all authority, powers, and duties of the Principal Officers, Commissioners of the Navy and Commissioners of Victualling were transferred to the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral, and quorum for the Admiralty Board reduced to two, irrespective of the number of Commissioners.

In 1917 the office of First Sea Lord was merged with that of the Director of the Naval War Staff, making the First Sea Lord effectively chief of operations as well as Chief of the Naval Staff. In the same year the position of Fifth Sea Lord was created to provide direct Board oversight to the swiftly-expanding Royal Naval Air Service - giving due recognition to the importance of naval aviation.