John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe
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Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO, (December 5, 1859–November 20, 1935) was a British Royal Navy admiral.
He was born in Southampton into a sea-faring family. He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1872. His first active service was during the Egyptian War of 1882. He was appointed to the Admiralty in 1888.
Jellicoe was an intelligent and dedicated officer. Popular with his crews, he was very concerned with the well-being and morale of his sailors. He was also a micromanager, driving himself to the point of exhaustion at times.
Promoted to commander in 1891, Jellicoe was the executive officer (i.e. second in command) of HMS Victoria when she was accidentally rammed and sunk with heavy loss of life in the Mediterranean in 1893.
Jellicoe had a number of commands in the 1890s, and, in 1900, he was part of the command for the land relief of Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion, the First Peking Relief Expedition. He showed conspicuous bravery at this time and was seriously wounded.
Under John Fisher, Jellicoe was Director of Naval Ordnance (1905-1907) and then Controller of the Navy (1908-1910). He pushed hard for funds to modernise the navy, supporting the construction of new designs of dreadnought and submarine. Jellicoe became very knowledgeable about his profession, much more so than most of his contemporaries, especially appreciating the strong points of the German navy.
He supported F. C. Dreyer's improvements in gunnery fire-control systems, and favoured the adoption of Dreyer's "Fire Control Table", a form of mechanical computer for calculating firing solutions for warships.
In a letter to Admiral Fisher, 4 December 1911, Admiral Francis Bridgeman gave a shrewd summation of Jellicoe's most serious faults as he saw them at the time of his next promotion:
- "Directly I go, up he comes automatically to command of the 2nd Division, and a splendid opportunity for him! He has no experience of fleet work on a big scale, and is so extremely anxious about the work in it, that he really does too much. He must learn to work his captains and staff more, and himself less! At present he puts himself in the position of, say, a glorified gunnery lieutenant. This will not do when he gets a big fleet. He must trust his staff and captains, and if they don’t fit, he must kick them out! I am sure you will agree with me on this view, and I wish, if you get the opportunity, you would drop him a hint. He would take it from you, but perhaps not from me."
In 1911 Jellicoe became deputy to George Callaghan, the Commander of the Home Fleet. At the start of World War I, August 4, 1914, Callaghan was prematurely put on the shelf by Winston Churchill. Jellicoe was promoted to command the renamed Grand Fleet in his place, though he was appalled by the treatment of Callaghan. Churchill described Jellicoe later as 'the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon'.
Jellicoe was in command of the British fleet at the Battle of Jutland (1916), the greatest clash of big-gun armoured warships ever. His handling of the Grand Fleet during the Battle remains controversial, with some historians faulting the battle cruiser commander, Admiral David Beatty, and others criticizing Jellicoe. However, Jellicoe certainly made no significant mistakes during the battle. The worst that can be said is that he overestimated the danger from a massed attack by enemy destroyers. At Jutland his Flag-Captain aboard the Flagship HMS Iron Duke was Dreyer.
He was made First Sea Lord in November 1916. He was rather abruptly dismissed from this post in 1917 by the new First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Eric Geddes and was succeeded by Rosslyn Wemyss, then by David Beatty.
Jellicoe was made a Viscount in 1918 and became Governor-General of New Zealand from September 1920 to November 1924. On his return to England in 1925, he was made an Earl. He died in November, 1935 and his estate was probated at 13,370 pounds sterling. He was succeeded in the Earldom by his only son George, then styled Viscount Brocas.
Jellicoe was a controversial figure after the war in British naval circles, with persons tending to be supporters of him or of Beatty. Part of his problem was a reluctance to engage in the political manoeuvring needed in such a post.
A bust of Jellicoe rests on Trafalgar Square in London, alongside those of Beatty and Andrew Cunningham, Admiral of the Fleet in World War II. A blue plaque stands on the wall of his house in Blacklands Terrace, Chelsea, London.
[edit] Ancestors
| John Rushworth Jellicoe (1859-1935) | Father: Captain John Henry Jellicoe (1825-1914) of Southampton |
Paternal Grandfather: Samuel Jellicoe (d.1861) of Fareham |
Paternal Great-Grandfather: Samuel Jellicoe (1788-1843)of Uplands House, Fareham |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Catherine Lee |
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| Paternal Grandmother: Elizabeth Whalley Smythe Gardiner |
Paternal Great-Grandfather: Sir James Whalley Smythe Gardiner, 2nd Bt. (d.1805) of Roche Court, Fareham |
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| Paternal Great-Grandmother: Jane Master |
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| Mother: Lucy Keele (d.1916) |
Maternal Grandfather: Dr. John Rushworth Keele (b.1787) of Southampton |
Maternal Great-Grandfather: John Keele (b.1760) |
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| Maternal Great-Grandmother: Elizabeth Rushworth |
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| Maternal Grandmother: Constantia Patton |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Admiral of the Red Philip Patton (1739-1815) of Fareham |
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| Maternal Great-Grandmother: Elizabeth Dixon |
[edit] References
- The Life of John Rushworth, Earl Jellicoe, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O, L.L.D., D.C.L., by Admiral Sir R. H. Bacon, K.C.B., K.C.V.O., D.S.O., Cassell, London, Toronto, Melbourne & Sydney, 1936.
- Geoffrey Callender in The Dictionary of National Biography, OUP, 1949.
- Jellicoe, by John Winton, Michael Joseph, London, 1981.
- Andrew Lambert in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP, 2004-7.
[edit] External links
- John Jellicoe at Find-A-Grave
- Works by John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe at Project Gutenberg
- German Wiki entry.
- French Wiki entry.
| Military Offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Jackson |
Third Sea Lord 1908–1910 |
Succeeded by Charles John Briggs |
| Preceded by Prince Louis of Battenberg |
Second Sea Lord 1912–1914 |
Succeeded by Sir Frederick Hamilton |
| Preceded by Sir Henry Jackson |
First Sea Lord 1916–1917 |
Succeeded by Sir Rosslyn Wemyss |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by The Earl of Liverpool |
Governor-General of New Zealand 1920–1924 |
Succeeded by Sir Charles Fergusson |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by New Creation |
Earl Jellicoe 1925–1935 |
Succeeded by George Jellicoe |
| Preceded by New Creation |
Viscount Jellicoe 1917–1935 |
|
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jellicoe, John Rushworth Jellicoe, Earl |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jellicoe, John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Admiral, viceroy |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 5, 1859 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Southampton, United Kingdom |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 20, 1935 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe • Sir Peter Parker • Prince William, Duke of Clarence • Sir George Cockburn • Sir Thomas Hardy • The Hon. George Heneage Dundas • Charles Adam • Sir Charles Adam • Sir William Parker • Sir Charles Adam • James Whitley Deans Dundas • Hyde Parker • The Hon. Maurice Fitzhardinge Berkeley • William Fanshawe Martin • The Hon. Sir Richard Saunders Dundas • The Hon. Sir Frederick Grey • Sir Sydney Dacres • Sir Alexander Milne • Sir Hastings Yelverton • George Wellesley • Sir Astley Cooper Key • Sir Arthur Acland Hood • Lord John Hay • Sir R. Vesey Hamilton • Sir Anthony Hoskins • Sir Frederick Richards • Lord Walter Kerr • Sir Jackie Fisher • Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson • Sir Francis Bridgeman • Prince Louis of Battenberg • Sir Henry Jackson • Sir John Jellicoe • Sir Rosslyn Wemyss • The Earl Beatty • Sir Charles Madden, Bt • Sir Frederick Field • The Lord Chatfield • Sir Roger Backhouse • Sir Dudley Pound • The Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope • Sir John Cunningham • The Lord Fraser of North Cape • Sir Rhoderick McGrigor • The Earl Mountbatten of Burma • Sir Charles Lambe • Sir Caspar John • Sir David Luce • Sir Varyl Begg • Sir Michael Le Fanu • Sir Peter Hill-Norton • Sir Michael Pollock • Sir Edward Ashmore • Sir Terence Lewin • Sir Henry Leach • Sir John Fieldhouse • Sir William Staveley • Sir Julian Oswald • Sir Benjamin Bathurst • Sir Jock Slater • Sir Michael Boyce • Sir Nigel Essenhigh • Sir Alan West • Sir Jonathon Band •
Categories: British people of World War I | Earls in the Peerage of the United Kingdom | Governors-General of New Zealand | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath | Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order | Members of the Order of Merit | Lords of the Admiralty | People from Southampton | People of the Boxer Rebellion | Royal Navy admirals | 1859 births | 1935 deaths | Royal Navy First Sea Lords
