Lord High Admiral



         


For the international law of the sea, see Admiralty law. For the area of Hong Kong, see Admiralty, Hong Kong

The Admiralty (officially the Admiralty Board) is a division of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence overseeing the affairs of the Royal Navy. The Admiralty Board replaced the Board of Admiralty (officially the Lords Commissioners for Exercising the Office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, etc.) when the functions of that office were incorporated into the Ministry of Defence in 1964.

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History

The office of Admiral of England, or Lord Admiral and later Lord High Admiral was created in approximately 1400. In 1546 King Henry VIII established the Council of the Marine later to became 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 the Admiralty. Control of the Navy was passed a number of times to and from the board and the Lord High Admiral, notoriously vested in the Duke of York towards the end of Charles II's reign, until in 1709 the powers of the Lord High Admiral were finally vested in the Board of Admiralty.

The Board of Admiralty consisted of admirals (known as Sea Lords) and civilian lords, normally politicians. The professional head of the Royal Navy was (and still is) known as the First Sea Lord. The civilian minister and president of the Board was known as the First Lord of the Admiralty.

The seat of power of the Admiralty in Whitehall was clumsily designed and built by Thomas Ripley, a former carpenter and protegé of Sir Robert Walpole, whose distinctly provincial essay in such a prominent site provoked the scorn of Pope:

See under Ripley rise a new White-hall,
While Jones' and Boyles' united labours fall.
— The Dunciad (1743), book III, ii, 327-8

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

In 1964 the Admiralty was subsumed into the Ministry of Defence along with the War Office and the Air Ministry. Within the expanded Ministry of Defence are a new Admiralty Board, Army Board and Air Force Board, each headed by the Secretary of State for Defence. (The new Admiralty Board was to have been called the Navy Board but for an amendment in the House of Lords).

The title of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom is now vested in the Sovereign. However, there continues to be appointed a Vice-Admiral and a Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom.

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Lord High Admirals, 1413-1628

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Lords High Admiral and First Lords of the Admiralty, 1628-1709

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First Lords of the Admiralty, 1709-1964

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Admirals of the Fleet, 1795-1827

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First Sea Lords, 1828-Present





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