February 10, 2015

Disputes with high personages marked this season for the First Lord of the Admiralty.

One was with the Admiralty’s senior commander, Sir Francis Bridgeman, whom WSC urged to retire on the grounds of ill-health because the “burden may be more than you could sustain.” Bridgeman did not wish to go quietly but acquiesced when told that Churchill’s conclusion “must necessarily be final.” The Bridgeman resignation became a major political problem for Churchill in the House and the Press. Five Sea Lords had been retired by Churchill who was accused of wanting to run the show himself. He appointed Prince Louis of Battenberg as the new First Sea Lord and Sir John Jellicoe as Second Sea Lord.

The greatest personage with whom Churchill disputed was King George V over the naming of the Royal Navy’s capital ships. When Churchill proposed the names of King Richard I, King Henry V, Queen Elizabeth and Oliver Cromwell, the Sovereign took serious issue with the last name. Neither side seemed inclined to relent until Prince Louis of Battenberg advised the First Lord that Kings historically had the last word in naming ships. Oliver Cromwell became Valiant.

His cousin, “Sunny,” Ninth Duke of Marlborough, wrote from France that he had purchased Winston a Christmas present, a bathrobe, because “I have been shocked at the manner in which you display your person when travelling to and from the bathroom, and I am making an effort to find you an appropriate leaf.”

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