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Admiral of the Fleet Sir Frederick Charles Doveton Sturdee, 1st Baronet, (9 June 18597 May 1925) was a Royal Navy officer. After training as a torpedo officer, he commanded two different cruisers and then three different battleships before becoming commander of the 1st Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet. He went on to command the 3rd Cruiser Squadron and then the 2nd Cruiser Squadron.
Just before the start of the First World War Sturdee became Chief of War Staff at the Admiralty. In November 1914 the Royal Navy suffered a serious defeat at the Battle of Coronel. In response Sturdee, recently sacked from his job at the Admiralty, was sent to the South Atlantic to seek out the German squadron, commanded by Graf Maximilian von Spee, which had caused the damage at Coronel. On 8 December 1914, while coaling at Stanley, Sturdee encountered von Spee and the subsequent action became known as the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Von Spee, finding that he was engaged with a superior force, was forced to flee. In the course of the pursuit Sturdee's forces sank almost the entire German squadron. Only one light cruiser escaped but she was hunted down in March 1915.
In the closing years of the war Sturdee served as commander of the 4th Battle Squadron in the Grand Fleet and then as Commander-in-Chief, The Nore.
Sturdee wrote (9 March 1909) to Jack Sandars, an adviser to the Opposition leader Arthur Balfour, expressing doubt that the 10,000 yard range of HMS Dreadnought’s 12-inch guns would be of much use, as visibility did not extend more than 6,000 yards in the North Sea on 25 days out of 30. He appears at that time to have favoured caution before committing too many resources to all-big-gun battleships.Lambert 2002, p.214 Historian Nicholas Lambert writes that “a self-proclaimed naval intellectual, Sturdee was the disciple of Reginald Custance who and former flag captain to Lord Charles Beresford. Sturdee’s pomposity and arrogance combined with his close association with Beresford earned him the enmity of Admiral Sir John Fisher, who tried hard to sabotage his career." Although no longer First Sea Lord, Fisher wrote (1 Feb 1910) to First Lord of the Admiralty Reginald McKenna urging him not to appoint Sturdee Third Sea Lord.Lambert 2012, pp.283-5 He became Rear Admiral commanding the 1st Battle Squadron of the Home Fleet, with his flag in the battleship , in 1910.
Sturdee became President of the Submarine Committee of the Admiralty in early 1911. He benefited from the decision by the incoming First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, in late 1911 to pass over twenty admirals to promote John Jellicoe to command of the 2nd Battle Squadron, freeing up a promotion logjam.Lambert 2012, pp.283-5 Sturdee became commander of the 3rd Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet, with his flag in the cruiser , in December 1911. He went on to become commander of the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet, with his flag in Shannon again, in 1913. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 3 June 1913.
On 24 July 1914 Sturdee submitted two memos deploring the new planned “HMS Polyphemus” class, a semi-submerged torpedo cruiser armed with eight torpedoes. There had been an argument about the naval estimates at the start of 1914, with Liberal opinion, including Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George, objecting to ever-escalating naval expenditure, especially with a general election due within a year or so. Churchill’s motives were purely financial, aiming to save up to £900,000 off the naval budget, and his plans had been outlined in memos on 1 and 14 June 1914. He aimed to substitute 14-16 submarines for a planned "HMS Resistance" and 6-8 Polyphemuses for a planned "HMS Agincourt" (the name was reused for a different battleship), and to cease all destroyer building except for two or three large ones for use as flotilla leaders, and build submarines instead.Lambert 2002, pp.300-1 Sturdee criticised the high cost of the Polyphemuses, as well as their low freeboard (making them unusable in rough seas) and vulnerability to enemy destroyers. Christopher Bell writes that, contrary to Nicholas Lambert's claims, no final decision had been reached on “substitution” (of submersible craft for battleships) prior to the outbreak of war.Bell presents no evidence that any of this was anything to do with the imminence of war (war was about to break out in the Balkans (see July Crisis), but it was not clear until early August that Britain would be involved). Rather, it was part of the renewed fallout over the January 1914 naval estimates.Bell 2012, p.47
On 9 August 1914, with Britain now at war with Germany, Churchill instructed Battenberg and Sturdee to draw up plans to seize Ameland in the Dutch Frisian Islands. This was the genesis of the eventual plan to land at Borkum (as a possible prelude to seizing the Kiel Canal and Baltic Project.Bell 2017, p.22, p. 373 Bell gives the date of Churchill's Ameland instruction as 8 August in his text then 9 August in a footnote.Bell 2012, p.51
Sturdee objected (16 August 1914) to the Order in Council about blocking trade with Germany through neutral countries. He doubted the “political expediency of adopting an attitude the practical efficacy of which is very doubtful, and which I think is just as sure to raise trouble with neutrals”. Admiral Edmond Slade recorded similar thoughts on 18 August.Lambert 2012, p.225
Sturdee wrote two “dismissive minutes” (25 September 1914) about the Cabinet’s wishes to mine the eastern North Sea as far south as Rotterdam and Vlissingen. Nicholas Lambert comments that Sturdee “a self-proclaimed naval theorist of the Mahanian school, was notorious for his monochromatic view of sea power and his dogmatic insistence that the primary objective must remain decisive victory in a fleet engagement”. Captain Herbert Richmond complained in his diary that “he produced the old, stale claptrap that what we want to do is not to keep the enemy in but to get him out & fight”. While Churchill was away at Antwerp Sturdee had persuaded the First Sea Lord Prince Louis of Battenberg to join him in a joint statement that it was not British policy to lay mines (the document is not in the archives, according to Nicholas Lambert – it is only mentioned in the 1 October diary of Captain Philip Dumas, the “Director of Mining”). Churchill (1 October) ordered the Admiralty to draw up a schedule for mining the North Sea, reconfirming instructions given by Prime Minister H.H. Asquith while he was away at Antwerp.Lambert 2012, pp.261-2
In Nicholas Lambert's view Sturdee shared some of the blame for Admiralty blunders for which Churchill was blamed by the press – the escape of the Goeben and Breslau, and the loss of the Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue.Lambert 2012, pp.283-5 Christopher Bell writes that Churchill, who had vainly urged that the three cruisers be stationed more safely further away from the German fleet, was unfairly blamed in the press. He had appointed Battenberg and Sturdee and so bears some responsibility for their errors, but nonetheless the fault for the loss of the three cruisers lies with them.Bell 2017, p.31 On 1 November 1914 the Royal Navy suffered a demoralising defeat when it lost two armoured cruisers commanded by Christopher Cradock at the Battle of Coronel.Massie, p. 248 In The World Crisis (his First World War memoirs, published in the 1920s) Churchill later put the blame for Coronel on Cradock (to the displeasure of his surviving relatives); in Bell's view he should have been more critical of Battenberg and Sturdee for failure to transmit clear orders.Bell 2017, p.3o8
Admiral Fisher, returning as First Sea Lord in Battenberg's place, sacked Sturdee (4 November) – he was “the first to go” in Nicholas Lambert’s words. Stephen Roskill (in Man of Secrets, his biography of Maurice Hankey) described this as personal “headhunting” by Fisher. However Nicholas Lambert comments that Captain Philip Dumas wrote in his diary on the day of Fisher’s return (30 October) that “the great hope here is for Sturdee & Arthur Leveson to go”. Reginald Hall also thought similarly.Lambert 2012, pp.292.3
On 8 December 1914, while coaling at Stanley, Sturdee encountered von Spee and the subsequent action became known as the Battle of the Falkland Islands. Von Spee, finding that he was engaged with a superior force, was forced to flee. In the course of the pursuit Sturdee's forces sank almost the entire German squadron, including the armoured cruisers, and . Only the light cruiser escaped but she was hunted down in March 1915.Heathcote, p. 240 Lambert comments that it was “remarkable fortune” that von Spee ran into Sturdee's force refuelling at Port Stanley.Lambert 2012, pp.292.3
George Riddell commented in his Diary (29 April 1915) that Churchill, now under renewed press attack for the failed naval attack on the Dardanelles, showed him papers proving that he was not to blame for the loss of the three cruisers ( Aboukir, Cressy and Hogue) and the Battle of Coronel the previous autumn. They were interrupted by Admiral Fisher coming into room and insisting to Churchill that “a person of importance wishes to see you” – Riddell suspected that Fisher had been summoned by Churchill’s Private Secretary James Masterton-Smith to stop Churchill showing him classified papers. Churchill did not go immediately but commented that Battenberg had been “very lethargic” and Sturdee “not a good Chief of Staff. He is a good fighting admiral but not a clever man”. Fisher resigned the following month, bringing down the Liberal Government and causing Churchill's removal from the Admiralty.Bell 2017, p.162
Sturdee was created a baronet on 15 March 1916 with the title "of the Falkland Is." Sturdee directed his squadron at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. He was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George on 31 May 1916 and awarded the Cross of Commander of the French Legion of Honour on 15 September 1916.
Lord Sydenham of Combe (4 October 1916) and Reginald Custance (9 October 1916) complained in letters to The Times that Churchill’s recent statements (Churchill was out of office at the time) that the German High Seas Fleet was effectively blockaded and that surplus forces should be used in offensive operations (similar to the views of naval theorist Julian Corbett) ignored the importance of seeking a decisive victory over the German Fleet. Sturdee also complained in a private memorandum (24 Nov 1916) that Churchill’s policy was “the exact reverse of what he advocated when in office and expressed in public speeches”. Historian Christopher Bell thinks this not quite fair – Churchill had advocated risking old, near-obsolete ships in the attack on the Dardanelles but had never suggested weakening Britain’s superiority over Germany in the North Sea. In articles ( The London Magazine December 1916 and January 1917) and in a Commons speech (21 February 1917) Churchill continued to argue that seeking a major naval victory over Germany was unrealistic but that Germany was effectively blockaded even if such a blockade now took place from bases further away from the enemy than in Napoleonic times.Bell 2012, pp.77-8
Promoted to full admiral on 17 May 1917, Sturdee was appointed Grand Officer of the Italian Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus on 11 August 1917, and became Commander-in-Chief, The Nore in March 1918. He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on his retirement on 5 July 1921 and advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1921. He was President of the Society for Nautical Research (1922–1925).Murphy & Oddy, p. 26.
Sturdee retired to Camberley, in Surrey, and died there on 7 May 1925. He was buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church in nearby Frimley. His gravestone incorporates a cross made from the timbers of Nelson's ship, . His grandson William StaveleyHeathcote, p. 235 and grandson-in-law Edward Ashmore were also Admirals of the Fleet.
First World War
Chief of War Staff
Sturdee was promoted to vice-admiral on 13 December 1913. By the end of 1913 Sturdee was considered for the position of Chief of Admiralty War Staff. Draft notes in Churchill’s papers suggest that he may have been the second choice after Prince Louis of Battenberg had given what Nicholas Lambert describes as “uncharacteristically fierce resistance” to appointing his former superior Reginald Custance.Lambert 2012, pp.283-5 Heathcote states that he took office as Chief of War Staff at the Admiralty in July 1914.
South Atlantic
Admiral Lord Fisher sent a squadron commanded by Sturdee, with his flag in the battlecruiser , to the South Atlantic to seek out the German squadron, commanded by Graf Maximilian von Spee, which had won the Battle of Coronel.Massie, p. 248 Sturdee was given command at Winston Churchill’s insistence, because he did not at that time wish him to be scapegoated for Admiralty failings.Lambert 2012, pp.292.3 Halpern comments that the decision was compounded by the fact that Fisher "detested" Sturdee and wanted to remove him from the Admiralty.Halpern, p. 247
Grand Fleet
Sturdee became commander of the 4th Battle Squadron in the Grand Fleet, with his flag in the battleship , in January 1915.
Personal life
In 1882 Sturdee married Marion Andrews (died 1940): they had a son and a daughter.
Arms
See also
Sources
External links
Categories: 1859 Births, 1925 Deaths, Burials In Surrey, Royal Navy Admirals Of World War I, Royal Navy Personnel Of The Anglo-egyptian War, Baronets In The Baronetage Of The United Kingdom, Royal Navy Admirals Of The Fleet, British Recipients Of The Legion Of Honour, Knights Grand Cross Of The Order Of The Bath, Knights Commander Of The Order Of St Michael And St George, Commanders Of The Royal Victorian Order, History Of The Falkland Islands, Military Personnel From The Royal Borough Of Greenwich, People From Charlton, London
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