Letters and Papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, 1830-1915

ZZZURXWOHGJHFRP PUBLICATIONS

OF THE

NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY

V o l . 143

LETTERS AND PAPERS OF PROFESSOR SIR JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON, 1830-1915 The N a v y R e c o r d s S o c ie t y was established in 1893 for the purpose of printing unpublished manuscripts and rare works of naval interest. The Society is open to all who are interested in naval history, and any person wishing to become a member should apply to the Hon. Secretary, Department of War Studies, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS. The annual subscription is £30, which entitles the member to receive one free copy of each work issued by the Society in that year, and to buy earlier issues at much reduced prices.

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Frontispiece: Sir John Knox Laughton, 1830-1915, as Professor of Modem History, King’s College, London. Reproduced with permission of King’s College Archive. LETTERS AND PAPERS OF PROFESSOR SIR JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON, 1830--1915

Edited by ANDREW LAMBERT M.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S.

PUBLISHED BY ROUTLEDGE FOR THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY 2002 First published 2002 by Ashgate Publishing

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Laughton, John Knox, 1830--1915 Letters and papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, 1830--1915. - (Publications of the Navy Records Society; no. 143) I. Laughton, John Knox, 1830--1915 2. Great Britain. Royal Navy - History 3. Naval historians - Great Britain - Correspondence 4. Great Britain - History, Naval - 19th century 5. Great Britain - History, Naval - 20th century I. Tttle II. Lambert, Andrew D. III. Navy Records Society 941'.081'092

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Laughton, John Knox, 1830--1915. Letters and papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, 1830--1915 I edited by Andrew D. Lambert. p. cm. -- (Navy Records Society publications) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-7546-0822-0 (alk. paper) I. Laughton, John Knox, 1830--1915 - Correspondence. 2. Great Britain - History, Naval - Historiography. 3. Naval historians - Great Britain - Correspondence. 4. History, teachers - Great Britain - Correspondence. 5. Historians - Great Britain - Correspondence. I. Lambert, Andrew D. II. Tttle. III. Publications of the Navy Records Society.

DA70 .Al 2002 [DA3.L38] 94 l.08'092-

ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-0822-6 (hbk) THE COUNCIL OF THE NAVY RECORDS SOCIETY 2002

PATRON H.R.H. THE PRINCE PHILIP, DUKE OF EDINBURGH, K.G., O.M., F.R.S.

PRESIDENT Admiral o f the Fleet S ir B en jam in B a t h u r s t , G.C.B., D.L.

VICE-PRESIDENTS Professor D.A. B a u g h H.U.A. La m b e r t , M.A. P. K. C r im m in , M.Phil., F.R.Hist.S., F.S.A. M.A. S im ps o n M.A., F.R.Hist.S.

COUNCILLORS Professor D. M. L o a d e s , M.A., Ph.D., Captain S. Je r m y , R.N. Litt.D., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S. Captain C. Pa g e , R.N. G. M. H ugh es Dr C. S. Kn i g h t o n , M.A., Ph.D., D.Phil. Dr H.W. D ic k i n s o n , M.A., Ph.D. Professor D. C a n n a d i n e , M.A., Ph.D. Captain A. B. S a i n s b u r y , V.R.D., J.P., Dr C. W il k in so n M.A., R.N.R. R. Gwil li am A. N. Rya n, M.A., F.R.Hist.S. Rear Admiral J.R. H ill Professor C. D a nd e k er Dr C. 1. H am il to n , M.A., Ph.D. Dr E. J. G ro ve , M.A., Ph.D. Dr M. D u f f y , M.A., D.Phil., F.R.Hist.S. B. Lave ry , M.A. C. White D.G. L aw , M.A., Dip.Lib., A.L.A. Lt-Commander L. Phill ips Lt-Commander A. G o r d o n , Ph.D. Dr S.P. R o s e , M.A., Ph.D. Professor N.A.M. R o d g e r , M.A., D.Phil., F.S.A., F.R.Hist.S.

HON. SECRETARY Professor A.D. La m b e r t , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S.

HON TREASURER J.V. T y l e r , F.C.C.A.

GENERAL EDITOR R.A. M o r r i s s , M.A., Ph.D.

MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Mrs A. G o u l d

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Bryan Maclean Ranft (1917-2001), Professor of Naval History at the Royal Naval College, and at King’s College London. A scholar, gentleman and friend.

CONTENTS

Page Preface ...... xi

Acknowledgements ...... xiii

List of Abbreviations ...... xv

Introduction ...... 1

1 ‘The Scientific Study of Naval History’, 1875-85 ...... 7

2 Professor of Modem History, 1885-90 ...... 31

3 The Navy Records Society, 1891-95 ...... 71

4 Fighting for Nelson, 1896-1900 ...... 120

5 Working to the End, 1901-15 ...... 195

6 Sir John Knox Laughton’s Unfinished Naval History of England...... 263

Appendix 1 List of Documents Used in this Volume...... 301

Appendix 2 List of Archives from which Documents are Derived ...... 309

Appendix 3 The Published Works of Sir John Knox Laughton ...... 311

Index...... 319

PREFACE

This volume of correspondence and related materials is drawn from a wide variety of sources. It reflects the broad range of Laughton’s interests, and the width of his correspondence. The main body of surviving Laughton MSS was deposited at the National Maritime Museum, Green- wich, England in 1979, by his grandson. They remained uncatalogued and unsorted as MS79/067 until 2001. They are now catalogued under the call mark LGH, divided into 57 separate files, and contained in nine boxes, under which system they have been referred to in this volume. Folio numbers have been added to individual items where appropriate. The collection originally comprised six boxes, one of which was occupied by the subject of flags - a subject that I have not addressed in this volume. Another contained letters from Mahan, all of which have been reproduced here. The other four contained what can only have been a sample of Laughton’s incoming correspondence, together with draft lecture notes and other memoranda. There is also a separate collection consisting of Laughton’s notebooks, filed under his name in the existing MS catalogue. These were deposited in the 1950s by his son Leonard Carr Laughton, who had used them extensively. No material from this source has been used here. In addition to the Laughton archive a wide range of related collections have supplied letters. At Greenwich the files of Cyprian A.G. Bridge, William Laird Clowes, Julian S. Corbett, Reginald N. Custance, Geoffrey T. R Hornby, Gerard H.U. Noel, Herbert W. Richmond and Charles Napier Robinson all yielded important material. In addition the archive of the Navy Records Society is held on deposit at the Museum. The early minute books contain much information on the nature of Laughton’s work, a few pieces of correspondence and memoranda. Laughton’s service record and correspondence as a Lecturer at the Royal Naval College is contained in the Admiralty collection at the Public Record Office, Kew. The archive of King’s College, London contains a Laughton file which relates to his appointment in 1885, together with other correspondence relating to his work at the College. The Naval Historical Branch, Whitehall, has a collection of his pam- phlets, which were bound by his friend the Admiralty Librarian W.G.

xi xii PROFESSOR SIR JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON

Perrin in 1916. At King’s College, Cambridge, the Oscar Browning and College MS provided important additional material. The Bodleian Li- brary, Oxford, holds the Sidney Lee MSS (including material belonging to Leslie Stephen) which explained Laughton’s role with the Diction- ary of National Biography. The University of London Paleography Room at Senate House holds the papers of the distinguished historians Sir John Seeley and Albert Frederick Pollard. In the British Library, Manuscript Division, the Althorp MSS, in particular the papers of the 5th Earl Spencer, were of particular importance. At the Royal Geo- graphical Society, London the Society archives, and minute books, together with the papers and manuscript journals of Sir Clements Markham were of interest. Further afield important Laughton material was drawn from the library of the Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario, which holds Laughton’s personal bound collection of his articles, in three volumes. The Library of Congress, Washington DC, holds the papers of Alfred Thayer Mahan and Stephen Bleecker Luce. Additional Luce material was provided by the library of the United States Naval War College, through the assistance of Professor John Hattendorf. All items printed here are identified by individual call marks, in accordance with Society practice. Where material has been drawn from collections other than the Laughton papers at the National Maritime Museum (LGH), the source and precise location have been identified. The selection of letters and papers for this volume has been guided by a desire to reveal Laughton’s intellectual life; what little is known of his private life is contained in my 1998 biography The Foundations of Naval History. All material has been produced in full, with the mini- mum of editorial intervention consistent with clarity. Where any excisions have been made they are indicated by an ellipsis ,..., or [brief details] for longer passages. Where words in the original have proved impossi- ble to read they have been marked [...]; where they remain uncertain they have been represented as [Naval?]. Editorial material has been restricted to footnotes. As many of these footnotes concern the titles of Laughton’s published works these have been given in short form, with the full citation being provided in Appendix 3. Citations for other works are given in full the first time they are used. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all those who have helped this project reach fruition. At the National Maritime Museum Alan Giddings and Clive Powell proved indefatigable in re- sponding to my queries, ensured the material was always to hand, and gave me the benefit of their expertise on the other collections. From his active retirement the late David Proctor recalled the arrival of the Laughton MSS at Greenwich back in 1979. At King’s College, London, Patricia Methven shared her unrivalled knowledge of the College Ar- chives; as did Andrew Tatham at the Royal Geographical Society. All of the record repositories I consulted provided the level and quality of support one has come to expect but should never take for granted. My study of Laughton was fundamentally affected by the support of three scholars. My debt to them is larger than can be repaid in this format. The late Bryan Ranft once again encouraged my work, and provided invaluable advice on the three interlocking areas where his career overlapped with that of Sir John; this volume is dedicated to him. Don Schurman not only provided the starting point for this work, but gave me the benefit of his views and experience over the years. John Hattendorf contributed much from the perspective of the United States Naval War College, most notably on the careers of Stephen Luce and Alfred Mahan. King’s College provided financial support for a vital research visit to the United States, while my colleagues and students were kind enough to tolerate my interest. My student Robert Mullins, while researching his Ph.D. thesis on Anglo-American naval policy decisions in 1889 provided insights of considerable value. In the final stage, that of converting the manuscript into a final published text, I had the inestimable benefit of support and guidance from the Society’s General Editor, my friend and colleague Dr Roger Morriss. While the results bear witness to his efforts, and the exemplary standards he sets, any remaining omissions, errors and oversights are, as ever, entirely the responsibility of the editor.

Andrew Lambert Kew xiii St George’s Day 2001

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BL British Library Bod Bodleian Library, Oxford C-in-C Commander-in-Chief DNB Dictionary of National Biography EHR English Historical Review FO Foreign Office HMS Her Majesty’s Ship (1837-1901); His Majesty’s Ship (1901— 52) JKL John Knox Laughton JRUSI Journal of the Royal United Services Institute KCC King’s College, Cambridge KCL King’s College, London LoC Library of Congress NMM National Maritime Museum NRS Navy Records Society PRO Public Record Office RGS Royal Geographical Society RN Royal Navy RNC Royal Naval College, at Greenwich from 1873 RO [Public] Record Office: Laughton’s abbreviation RUL Reading University Library RUSI Royal United Services Institute SRG Samuel Rawson Gardiner UoL University of London USN United States Navy USNIP United States Naval Institute Proceedings USNWC United States Naval War College

INTRODUCTION

From the dawn of historical writing naval history has been caught between the twin attractions of contemporary relevance, to serve modem navies, and the scholarly detachment of academic study. Between 1875 and 1915 Professor Sir John Knox Laughton spanned this divide to create the modem study of naval history, ensuring that it had an educational role in British Universities and Naval Colleges, as well as a central place in the development of naval tactics, doctrine and strategic thought. John Knox Laughton was bom on St George’s Day, 23 April, 1830, in the major seaport of Liverpool. His father, once a privateer commander, had prospered as a wine merchant. Having benefited from an excellent school education, Laughton entered Caius College, Cambridge in 1848. Here he sat the Maths Tripos, a formidable examination de- manding hard work and accuracy under sustained pressure, spread over eight days. Cambridge provided the defining experience of Laughton’s life. The University gave him a service ethic that precluded any thought of returning to the commercial bustle of Liverpool, while the Maths Tripos taught him the value of sustained application, and speed of execution; how to master basic principles and to assemble evidence with real skill. That he graduated in 1852 with a Wrangler’s degree (equivalent to a first class) is testimony to the power and endurance of his intellect. He would not know intellectual ease again until after the outbreak of the First World War, when failing eyesight and advanced age finally deprived him of the power to work. Laughton entered the Royal Navy as an Instructor in 1853, and served afloat in the Baltic Campaigns of 1854 and 1855. He attracted attention for his outstanding pedagogic skills, and his courage under fire during the Second China War (1856-58). The midshipmen in his gunroom, perhaps the most brilliant collection ever assembled, included A.K. Wilson, Edward Seymour, Michael Culme-Seymour, Harry Rawson, William Kennedy and George King-Hall. All would reflect on the benefit they had acquired from their Instructor. In 1860 he met the then Lieutenant Cyprian Bridge, who became his closest friend, and greatest collaborator.

1 2 PROFESSOR SIR JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON

Considered one of the finest Instructors in the Service, Laughton was selected to come ashore in 1866 and teach at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth. In this stimulating environment, working with the future leaders of the service, including the officers of HMS Excellent (the gunnery training ship), he devoted his efforts to examining the major contemporary issues. As a professional scientist and educator, he sought the underlying principles of the subjects he studied, and developed a sophisticated methodology to search for them. He began by writing important textbooks on oceanography and hydrographic surveying, but his major interest lay in the development of a modem naval doctrine to meet the altered conditions of the 1860s and an almost continuous technological revolution. While the introduction of iron armour and steam propulsion had persuaded the majority of commentators that the experience of the past was no longer relevant, Laughton recognised that this was wrong. He was the first to demonstrate the vital role of the past, accurately understood, as the basis for the development of contemporary naval thought and its underlying principles. As a key member of a short-lived, but impressive, naval intellectual movement of the early 1870s, Laughton responded to the clearly expressed needs of the officers he worked alongside. This period of work culminated in his Essay on Naval Tactics, published at Portsmouth in 1873. It was an exceptional, indeed epochal, contribution to contemporary debate in that it emphasised the role of history in the development of modem tactical thinking. In 1873, the Naval College moved into the old Hospital complex at Greenwich, opening a new phase in Laughton’s career. Now he had access to the wider audiences of London, and he exploited the opportunity, quickly becoming the College’s official academic spokesman at the United Services Institution. It was here in 1874 that he delivered the Royal United Services Institution Lecture ‘The Scientific Study of Naval History’, which established history as the basis for doctrine development, secured a place for the subject in the Naval College curriculum, and encouraged further study. Like contemporary professional historians, Laughton considered the true value of history lay in the present and future. The methodology he had used to develop theo- ries of atmospheric and oceanic circulation in the 1860s were applied with equal determination to naval history. Finding the existing published record episodic and lacking in scholarly rigour, he devoted his life to creating an accurate understanding of the past as the foundation for naval thought. This volume does not contain any material from before 1875, a period that is covered in detail in my biography of Laughton, The INTRODUCTION 3

Foundations of Naval History.1 In that period Laughton’s ideas were widely circulated by leading journals, public and college lectures and, most effectively, in the Edinburgh Review to which he contributed more than 60 notices in 40 years. A powerful critic of alarmist polemics, partisan politics and inadequate history, his unsigned pieces made a major contribution to the intellectual life of the age. In them he developed his strategic thought and methodological ideas while exercising a majestic oversight of all work that touched on his interests. The audience for his lectures, articles and books included the entire officer corps of the Royal Navy, army officers, defence analysts and major American thinkers such as Admiral Stephen Luce and Captain Alfred T. Mahan. Laughton’s work was critical to Admiral Luce’s campaign to establish the US Naval War College in 1886, and the task he set Mahan. Both American officers were lifelong friends, and their correspondence provides a key insight into the naval intellectual world of the late nineteenth century. Laughton and Mahan worked together for two dec- ades to advance the cause of naval education, strategic thought and history. They did so from a position of mutual respect; for Mahan always acknowledged Laughton to be ‘the’ historian, while Laughton deferred to his American friend as the pre-eminent analyst and strategic thinker of the age. The legacy of their relationship - the development of academically credible naval history as a vital element in naval education and strategic thought - remains central to the aims and methods of naval history to this day. Reduced from the Naval College in 1885, Laughton secured the appointment of Professor of Modem History at King’s College Lon- don, in succession to his close friend and academic exemplar Samuel Rawson Gardiner. Here he made a significant contribution to the professionalisation of English history. At the same time he wrote more than 900 lives for the Dictionary of National Biography - virtually the entire naval component. This work placed naval history before the widest audience, demonstrating that its leading figures were men of national importance. As the most eminent naval intellectual, spanning the service and academic communities, Laughton exploited the popular navalism of the early 1890s. He took the lead in the foundation of the Navy Records Society in 1893 to publish edited archival material. The core membership, almost all of whom were personal friends, comprised naval and military officers, statesmen, journalists, and professional and amateur

'A. Lambert, The Foundations of Naval History. John Knox Laughton, The Royal Navy and the Historical Profession (Chatham Publishing, London, 1998). 4 PROFESSOR SIR JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON historians. The Society operated as an unofficial historical section for the Naval Intelligence Department, then headed by his lifelong friend and co-founder of the Records Society, Admiral Sir Cyprian Bridge. The principal role of the Society was to provide the edited materials from which the service could develop doctrine and strategy. This con- nection continued through Laughton’s personal relationship with successive Directors, from the prickly Reginald Custance to the urbane Prince Louis of Battenberg - an institutional link that saw almost all Directors and Deputy Directors on the Council of the Record Society. From the outset, the publishing programme of the Society was domi- nated by the needs of the service as interpreted by the Naval Intelligence Department, and it undoubtedly contributed a vital element to pre-war naval thinking. At the same time, Laughton’s insistence that the work be conducted according to the best academic practice secured the support of his fellow professionals for this vital national task. Through the Records Society, Laughton recruited a number of important scholars to work on the naval past. The most notable among them, Sir Julian Corbett, would continue his work, and deepen the process of creating a historically based national strategy. Another notable recruit was Captain Herbert Richmond, who combined historical scholarship, always with contemporary relevance, with a career in the higher reaches of naval policy and education. Such was Laughton’s standing in the naval world by 1895 that when he asked Captain Lord Charles Beresford1 to check an old flag at Chatham, where he was Captain Superintendent of the Steam Reserve, the noble lord was anxious to help. Please command me if any, any time I can be of the least use to you, in helping with your most grateful and national work. All that you are doing deserves the unbounded gratitude and sympathy of our people. I wish your books were placed in all schools and the pupils made to study them, so as to instruct and let our people see how we happened at all to become a nation, very few know. The very best of good luck attend your efforts.

PS As I live at Ham, I will do myself the pleasure of running over to see you, some day on my bicycle, when I can get home.2

'Lord Charles Beresford (1846-1919) Admiral and later 1st Baron Beresford. Lead- ing naval reformer of the 1880s and 1890s; fell out with John Fisher in 1905-6, and from then on a severe critic of his reform programme. G. Bennett, 'Charlie B' (London 1968), pp. 191-5. 2Beresford to JKL 14.9.1895: LGH/54. INTRODUCTION 5

Suitably inspired, Beresford would write a popular life of Nelson two years later.1 By 1900 Laughton was universally recognised as a leading academic historian, and the principal exponent of his own branch of the modem discipline. Fellow historians, from Samuel Rawson Gardiner and Lord Acton to Charles Firth and Alfred Pollard, endorsed, supported and published his work. Laughton exploited his status. Recognising that his work would have to be continued on a more formal basis, he devoted the last decade of his life to the establishment of a department of naval history at King’s College, within the new federal University of London. He hoped to educate naval historians in order that they might contribute to developments in the doctrine of the expanding Edwardian service. This project was widely supported, and led to the creation of a post in Imperial History at King’s. But the department did not materialise, and the textbook Laughton was writing was incomplete at his death. De- spite the efforts of Corbett, Richmond, Pollard and others, nothing came of the project, and to this day there is only one full-time post in a British University devoted to the study of naval history. After his death in 1915 Laughton was largely neglected. Professor Schurman’s excellent chapter in The Education of a Navy: The Develop- ment of British Naval Thought 1867-1914 of 1965 was the first work to give Sir John due credit. Arthur J. Marder’s 1940 study of the late- Victorian Navy ignored him, while recent work on the development of strategic thought has minimised his role, despite recognising that he laid the foundations for Mahan and Corbett in the 1870s. Ignorance of the central figure in the intellectual life of the service between 1870 to 1910 may account for the widespread belief that the Royal Navy was a colo- nial gunboat force unable to comprehend strategy and the operational level of war. My 1998 biography 'The Foundations of Naval HistorySir John Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession (Chatham Publishing) attempted to analyse his career. Much of that book was concerned with his astonishing published output, a critical element in the long-term development of the service mind. In a career that spanned the Crimean War and the First World War, Laughton advanced the use of naval history as a fundamental intellectual resource available to two great navies, inspired other strategic writers to follow his thinking, and at the end of his long life came close to rounding off his career by establishing naval history at the heart of the historical profession. This volume focuses on the root of these achievements. This is the first time the Records Society has produced an edition of material

1 Nelson and his Times (London 1897), written with H.W. Wilson (Bennett, p. 173). 6 PROFESSOR SIR JOHN KNOX LAUGHTON dealing with an academic career, but it follows the usual pattern of ‘naval’ volumes in that it is concerned to show how the individual operated in his profession, to follow the stages of his career, to link him with patrons, friends and colleagues, to consider how he exerted influ- ence and recruited followers, and assess how far he succeeded in the tasks he attempted. The correspondence printed in this volume sheds light on all these aspects of Laughton’s professional life. He used it to develop his own understanding, to keep in contact with those at a distance, and advance his work. For a man who achieved so much through personal contact the letter was a key instrument. It is note- worthy that he corresponded far more with Mahan, who was an ocean away, than with Corbett, whom he met regularly in London and with whom he had a much closer working relationship. In consequence the reader should always be aware of the degree to which Laughton, ever a busy man, conducted his business by ‘net-working’ with those around him. This volume contains a representative selection of the surviving letters, but it cannot be representative of his wider human contacts. In addition the volume includes a few lecture notes and draft chapters from his last, incomplete, book. These give a flavour of his lectures, notably his critical role in creating ‘Imperial’ history to provide a proper context for naval history in London University. They reveal his hopes and ambitions at the end of an uncommonly long active career. Ultimately this volume is an attempt to understand how Laughton thought and functioned. It stresses the contemporary influences at work, along with the professional and personal links that gave his effort direction and form. By placing Laughton at the heart of naval thought, it is possible to see how the civilians and the serving officers collabo- rated, why Mahan’s books were so successful, and, critically, how the intellectual developments of the era influenced the Royal Navy. It is a contribution to the study of the Royal Navy, of the English historical profession and of the role of history in the creation of strategic thought.