Abstract
During his first term as first sea lord (1904–10), Admiral Sir John Fisher set in motion the intellectual, organizational, and technological forces that, in very rapid order, combined and recombined to generate new approaches to British naval policy. Like most if not all ‘revolutions’ in technology and warfare, this one did not start and end neatly under one man’s control, but took on a life of its own. Not all elements of his original vision advanced as far as others. Yet, however variable the direction and extent of the revolution at particular times, in retrospect we can say indubitably that it was Fisher who launched it. This essay is a response to Professor Christopher Bell’s July 2011 article: ‘Sir John Fisher’s Naval Revolution Reconsidered: Winston Churchill at the Admiralty, 1911–1914’.
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