Lord Barham: A Great Naval Administrator
Undoubtedly our greatest naval administrator since Pepys, at the height of his career, Lord Barham had just entered his eightieth year. Bernard Pool documents his unique achievements.
The names of great military leaders are household words. Yet those behind the lines who have dictated the strategy or provided the sinews of war, without which no commander can achieve success, largely remain unknown. Carnot, the “organizer of victory” in the French Revolutionary wars, is a possible exception.
In the period of our greatest victories at sea, Nelson, Howe and St. Vincent could not have won their battles unless they had been provided with well-built and well-equipped ships, backed by ample stocks of naval stores, and with efficient dockyard facilities for refits and repairs after action.
Admiral Sir Charles Middleton, raised to the peerage as Lord Barham in 1805 and then approaching his eightieth year, is remembered as the First Lord of the Admiralty at the time of the Trafalgar campaign.
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