Naval Ordnance Department (Royal Navy)

The Naval Ordnance Department, also known as the Department of the Director of Naval Ordnance, was a department at the Admiralty responsible for the gunnery materiel of the Royal Navy. Until 1917 it was also responsible for torpedoes and mines. The department was headed by a Director. The Naval Ordnance Stores Department and the Chief Inspector of Naval Ordnance's department also came under the Naval Ordnance Department at various times.

History

A Director-General of Naval Ordnance was appointed at the Admiralty in 1866, which title became Director of Naval Ordnance by 1869. The Junior Sea Lord, Charles F. Hotham, was still using the term Director General of Naval Ordnance in 1888, however.

Captain Arthur K. Wilson, appointed Assistant Director of Torpedoes on 7 March, 1887, wrote on 13 March:

… I understand I am to be called Assistant Director of Torpedoes, Captain Fisher being called Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes, instead of only Director of Naval Ordnance. I made a slight protest, but was told it was all settled and could not be altered. It is rather as if they had offered me a situation as cook and then made me scullery-maid. They are going to be very liberal in the matter of pay, however, as they propose to give me £950 a year, and I was rather glad to see that in explaining the matter to get the money out of the Treasury the Admiralty were obliged to say that, although I was called Assistant Director, I should have the greater part of the work of the Director …

Captain John A. Fisher, the then-Director of Naval Ordnance, became Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes.

During the tenures of Captains Jackson and Bethell the Assistant Director of Torpedoes was styled the Assistant Director of Naval Ordnance, before reverting to the original title with the appointment of a gunnery officer, Captain Tudor, as Assistant Director of Naval Ordnance in 1906.

In a note of 12 December, 1911, the First Lord, Winston S. Churchill, ordered that the title of Director of Naval Ordnance be altered to "Director of Naval Armaments" as from 1 January, 1912, so that the initialism "D.N.O." could be applied to the "Director of Naval Operations Division" of the new Admiralty War Staff. However, at the suggestion of Prince Louis of Battenberg this latter title was changed to Director of the Operations Division (D.O.D.).

In 1913 the department absorbed the staff and duties of the Inspector of Target Practice.

On 1 March, 1917, when Captain Frederic C. Dreyer succeeded Singer, the torpedo branch was devolved into the Department of the Director of Torpedoes and Mining under Rear-Admiral The Hon. Edward S. Fitzherbert, and Dreyer became Director of Naval Ordnance.

Dreyer would tell a high-level meeting of Naval Staff officers (presided over by the Second Sea Lord) in 1920 that:

Terrible mistakes were made in pre-war days and we had very bad ammunition largely because the D.N.O.s were overloaded with work of widely different natures, such as materiel and training and requirements.
It would be grossly unfair to blame the very able D.N.O.s of the past for the mistakes made - it was the fault of the system.

Staff

Staff Budgeted for in 1914.
Numbers	Position and Rank
1	Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes
1	Assistant Director of Torpedoes
1	Assistant Director of Naval Ordnance
1	Assistant to Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes
11	Assistants
1	Engineer Inspector (Engineer Captain or Engineer Commander)
2	Engineer Inspectors (Engineer Commanders or Engineer Lieutenants)
3	Engineer Lieutenants or Engineer Sub-Lieutenants
4	Lieutenants, Chief Gunners or Gunners
1	Examiner of Naval Ordnance Work
1	Pensioned Torpedo Instructor
8	Draughtsman
Clerical Staff: Gunnery Branch
1	Superintending Clerk
2	Assistant Superintending Clerks
2	Dockyard Clerks, First Grade
2	Dockyard Clerks, Second Grade
9	Dockyard Clerks, Third Grade
1	Chief or First Writer

Directors

Directors of Naval Ordnance, 1866-1887

• Rear-Admiral Astley C. Key, 3 September, 1866
• Captain Arthur W. A. Hood, 12 July, 1869
• Rear-Admiral Henry Boys, 18 May, 1874 – 4 June, 1878
• Rear-Admiral Richard V. Hamilton, 5 June, 1878
• Rear-Admiral Frederick A. Herbert, 6 March, 1880
• Rear-Admiral John O. Hopkins, 6 April, 1883 – 31 October, 1886

Directors of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes, 1887-1917

• Rear-Admiral John A. Fisher, 1 November, 1886
• Rear-Admiral Compton E. Domvile, 21 May, 1891 – 4 March, 1894
• Captain Henry C. Kane, 5 March, 1894 – 17 August, 1897
• Rear-Admiral Edmund F. Jeffreys, 18 August, 1897
• Rear-Admiral William H. May, 21 January, 1901 – 16 April, 1901
• Rear-Admiral Angus MacLeod, 17 April, 1901 – 1 January, 1904
• Rear-Admiral Henry D. Barry, 1 January, 1904
• Rear-Admiral John R. Jellicoe, 24 February, 1905 – 25 August, 1907
• Rear-Admiral Reginald H. S. Bacon, 25 August, 1907 – 16 December, 1909
• Rear-Admiral A. G. H. W. Moore, 16 December, 1909 – 29 May, 1912
• Rear-Admiral Frederick C. T. Tudor, 12 June, 1912 – 11 August, 1914
• Rear-Admiral Morgan Singer, 11 August, 1914 – 1 March, 1917

Directors of Naval Ordnance, 1917-

• Captain Frederic C. Dreyer, 1 March, 1917 – 20 June, 1918
• Captain H. Ralph Crooke, 20 June, 1918 – 20 September, 1920
• Captain Roger R. C. Backhouse, 20 September, 1920
• Captain Joseph C. W. Henley, 1 December, 1922 – 11 May, 1925
• Captain Julian F. C. Patterson, 23 July, 1928 – 27 April, 1931
• Captain Bruce A. Fraser, 12 August, 1933 – 20 April, 1936

Assistant Directors

Assistant Directors of Torpedoes

• Captain Arthur K. Wilson, 7 March, 1887 – 31 December, 1888
• Captain Edmund F. Jeffreys, 21 January, 1889 – June, 1893
• Captain William H. May, 1 June, 1893 – 17 January, 1895
• Captain The Hon. Maurice A. Bourke, 17 January, 1895 – 12 November, 1895
• Captain Sir Baldwin W. Walker, 12 November, 1895
• Captain Ernest A. Simons, 10 May, 1898
• Captain George Le C. Egerton, 4 August, 1898 – August, 1899
• Captain Alexander W. Chisholm-Batten, 3 August, 1899 – 24 June, 1901
• Captain George Le C. Egerton, 24 June, 1901 – 10 February, 1902
• Captain Henry B. Jackson, 10 February, 1902 – 6 March, 1903
• Captain The Hon. Alexander E. Bethell, 6 April, 1903 – 20 December, 1906
• Captain Bernard Currey, 21 December, 1906 – 21 December, 1908
• Captain Stuart Nicholson, 21 December, 1908 – 11 February, 1911
• Captain Edward F. B. Charlton, 11 February, 1911 – 15 August, 1914
• Captain Philip W. Dumas, 15 August, 1914 – January, 1917
• Captain Algernon H. C. Candy, 8 February, 1917 – 1 March, 1919
• Captain Brien M. Money, 5 April, 1919 – 27 April, 1921
• Captain Arthur T. Walker, 27 April, 1921 – 14 August, 1922

Assistant Directors of Naval Ordnance

• Captain Frederick C. T. Tudor, 1 October, 1906 – 22 May, 1909
• Captain Arthur W. Craig, 22 May, 1909 – 22 November, 1911
• Captain James C. Ley, 9 December, 1911 – 22 June, 1912
• Captain James D. Dick, 22 June 1912 – 3 January, 1915
• Commander Basil E. Reinold, 1 August, 1914 – 4 September, 1914
• Captain Herbert R. Norbury, 3 March, 1915 – 16 May, 1917
• Captain Joseph C. W. Henley, 16 May, 1917 – 2 January, 1919
• Captain Cecil V. Usborne, 15 January, 1919 – 25 May, 1921
• Captain Julian F. C. Patterson, 8 August, 1922 – 18 August, 1924
• Captain Francis T. B. Tower, 18 August, 1924 – 23 March, 1927
• Captain Alan R. Dewar, 23 March, 1927 – 20 April, 1928
• Captain Frederick A. Buckley, 20 April, 1928 – 13 October, 1930

Assistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance

• Commander Andrew L. Strange, 9 January, 1912 – 1 November, 1913
• Lieutenant-Commander Kenneth B. M. Churchill, 2 August, 1915 – 25 April, 1917

Deputy Directors of Naval Ordnance

• Captain Charles A. Scott, 8 February, 1921 – 31 December, 1922
• Captain George T. C. P. Swabey, 25 May, 1921 – 15 October, 1923
• Captain Alan R. Dewar, 20 April, 1928 – 21 September, 1929
• Captain Frank Elliott, 21 September, 1929 – 28 March, 1932

See Also

• Instructions for the Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes
• Instructions for the Director of Naval Ordnance
• Instructions for the Assistant Director of Torpedoes
• Inspector of Target Practice
• Gunnery and Torpedo Division

Bibliography

• Blond, A. J. L. (1993). Technology and Tradition: Wireless Telegraphy and the Royal Navy 1895-1920. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Lancaster: University of Lancaster..
• Jellicoe of Scapa, Admiral Viscount, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O. (1919). The Grand Fleet 1914-1916: Its Creation, Development and Work. New York: George H. Doran Company. (on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk).