John Arbuthnot Fisher Biography

Fisher takes command of HMS Excellent, strengthening his association with naval gunnery and technical training.

Fisher becomes Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes, overseeing important weapons and technical matters.

Fisher becomes Admiral Superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard.

Fisher becomes Controller of the Navy and Third Naval Lord, with major responsibility for naval material and construction.

Fisher assumes command of the North America and West Indies Station.

Fisher becomes Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet.

Fisher becomes Second Sea Lord with responsibility for naval personnel, training and related administrative reform.

The Fisher-Selborne scheme proposes common early training for executive, engineering and marine officer entrants.

Fisher becomes Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth.

Fisher sets out proposals for faster, heavily armed ships and other reforms in his Naval Necessities memorandum.

Fisher becomes First Sea Lord and professional head of the Royal Navy.

Fisher begins reorganising fleet deployment to concentrate stronger forces closer to the North Sea.

Fisher gives priority to modern battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines in the Home Fleet structure.

Fisher accelerates disposal or reserve placement of obsolete ships to release crews and resources for modern forces.

Fisher establishes and chairs the Committee on Designs to examine new battleship and armoured-cruiser concepts.

The Committee on Designs approves preliminary plans for the all-big-gun battleship that becomes HMS Dreadnought.

The Committee on Designs approves preliminary work on the fast armoured cruisers that become the Invincible class.

Fisher's design committee settles the outline of the fast armoured cruiser later developed as the Invincible class.

The final HMS Dreadnought design emerges from the Fisher-era design process with heavy uniform guns and turbine propulsion.

The Admiralty Board approves the new fast armoured-cruiser design with only minor changes.

HMS Dreadnought is laid down at Portsmouth under the naval construction programme associated with Fisher's reforms.

Fisher's fleet reforms expand nucleus-crew arrangements so reserve ships can be maintained with reduced peacetime manning.

HMS Dreadnought is launched, rapidly transforming international battleship design and naval competition.

HMS Dreadnought enters commission after an exceptionally rapid construction programme.

The newest capital ships are increasingly concentrated in eastern home waters as Germany becomes the principal naval concern.

A dedicated Nore submarine flotilla is formed as submarine forces expand in home waters during Fisher's administration.

Fisher continues shifting the Navy's strategic centre toward the North Sea and modern home-water forces.

The Admiralty addresses destroyer deficiencies while maintaining capital-ship superiority in the accelerating naval competition.

Fisher's administration supports stronger capital-ship construction as concern grows over Germany's naval building programme.

Home-water forces are reorganised into a unified Home Fleet with differing readiness levels and concentrated battle strength.

HMS Invincible enters Home Fleet service, embodying Fisher's fast heavily armed cruiser concept.

Fisher retires as First Sea Lord after more than five years directing major reforms of the Royal Navy.

Fisher returns from Italy to advise Winston Churchill on naval preparation and the possibility of war with Germany.

Fisher strongly advocates oil fuel for warships because of its operational, design and tactical advantages.

Fisher becomes chairman of a royal commission examining oil fuel and naval engine questions.

Fisher presses redesign of capital ships under construction to use oil fuel for greater speed and operational efficiency.

Fisher redirects the Renown design toward a very fast oil-burning battlecruiser suited to his northern offensive ideas.

Fisher redirects Repulse toward a fast battlecruiser design rather than the slower battleship concept previously planned.

Fisher makes offensive preparations in northern waters a central element of his renewed wartime naval strategy.

Fisher returns to the Admiralty as First Sea Lord after Prince Louis of Battenberg leaves office.

Fisher warns that forcing the Dardanelles without adequate troops could expose the fleet to serious losses.

Fisher insists repairs and preparation of Invincible and Inflexible be accelerated for immediate South Atlantic service.

Four large monitors are ordered to carry the American fourteen-inch twin turrets obtained during Fisher's emergency programme.

The new large monitors incorporate anti-torpedo bulges while being rushed from design to construction.

Fisher deploys Princess Royal toward the West Indies to guard against a possible German move through the Panama route.

Fisher seeks to enlist the country's wider engineering and shipbuilding capacity for accelerated wartime construction.

Fisher supports purpose-built shallow-draught ships able to bring heavy guns close to hostile coasts.

Fisher places Doveton Sturdee in command of the South Atlantic and Pacific force formed to destroy von Spee.

Fisher directs that speed of submarine construction should take precedence over peacetime concerns about lowest cost.

Fisher presides over an emergency building programme totalling 612 vessels for expanded wartime naval operations.

The emergency programme includes fifty seagoing patrol boats for expanded coastal and anti-submarine patrol work.

The emergency programme authorises fifty-six destroyers for fleet screening, patrol and offensive duties.

Fisher's emergency programme calls for five fast, shallow-draught battlecruisers intended for offensive operations.

Fisher's building programme includes five flotilla leaders to improve command of destroyer forces.

Fisher and Churchill seize the opportunity to use four American-built twin fourteen-inch turrets in new shallow-draught monitors.

The emergency construction programme provides for ninety smaller barges alongside the larger motor-barge fleet.

Fisher's emergency programme includes sixty-four submarines, reflecting his strong commitment to undersea warfare.

Fisher argues that normal paperwork and peacetime procedures must not delay urgent submarine production.

The emergency programme includes thirty-seven monitors for shallow-water and heavy coastal bombardment roles.

Fisher's 612-vessel programme includes thirty-six sloops for patrol, escort and minesweeping-related duties.

Fisher's programme includes twenty-four light river gunboats for operations in confined and shallow waters.

Fisher's emergency plan includes twenty-four specialised submarine-destroying vessels.

Fisher's programme includes two hundred oil-engined motor barges for amphibious and logistical operations.

The emergency programme includes two light cruisers among the new wartime construction.

Fisher declares rapid acquisition of additional submarines an urgent national requirement and presses for immediate construction.

The Director of Naval Construction is instructed to develop shallow-draught monitors around the newly available fourteen-inch turrets.

After news of Coronel, Fisher moves quickly to create an overwhelming force to hunt Admiral von Spee.

Fisher orders battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible detached from home forces for the hunt for von Spee.

A contract is signed with Bethlehem Steel for twenty H-type submarines as part of Fisher's rapid expansion programme.

Fisher refuses to delay the South Atlantic force and requires the battlecruisers to sail even with workmen still aboard.

Invincible and Inflexible leave Devonport under Sturdee on the mission Fisher had organised after Coronel.

The monitor programme expands with eight vessels designed around twelve-inch battleship turrets.

Sturdee's force destroys most of von Spee's squadron, vindicating Fisher's decision to send superior battlecruisers south.

Fisher promotes Courageous as a fast, heavily armed, shallow-draught vessel intended for operations including the Baltic.

Fisher strongly supports fitting director firing systems to battleships and battlecruisers without withdrawing them from service.

Fisher backs Furious as an exceptionally fast shallow-draught ship carrying very heavy guns for specialised offensive work.

Fisher promotes Glorious as another shallow-draught fast capital ship for his projected northern-water strategy.

Further monitor construction is authorised around available 9.2-inch guns for coastal bombardment operations.

Smaller monitors carrying six-inch weapons are added to the wartime shallow-water construction programme.

Fisher favours any attempt against the Straits being made rapidly with strong naval and military forces acting together.

Fisher supports adding the new battleship Queen Elizabeth to strengthen the proposed Dardanelles bombardment force.

The Admiralty orders two additional large monitors armed with fifteen-inch guns as Fisher's shallow-water programme expands.

Fisher submits a naval-policy memorandum warning against weakening home-water margins for peripheral operations.

Fisher argues against using major fighting ships for bombardment unless operations are supported by adequate military forces.

War Council discussion records Fisher's special cruisers and other vessels intended for a future Baltic operation.

Fisher discusses the proposed Dardanelles operation with Asquith and Churchill before the War Council meeting.

Fisher returns to the War Council and remains in office after the naval attack on the Dardanelles is approved.

Kitchener persuades Fisher that he should remain First Sea Lord despite being the principal dissenter over the operation.

Fisher leaves the War Council table and tells Kitchener he intends to resign over the Dardanelles decision.

The Admiralty is pressed to obtain special craft able to support the landing of fifty thousand troops where required.

Fisher expresses concern that battleships are being risked before the minefields are fully cleared.

After the 18 March losses, Fisher tells the War Council that the sinking of major ships cannot be dismissed.

Fisher repeats his view that forcing the Dardanelles by naval power alone could cost about twelve battleships.

Fisher becomes increasingly hostile to a prolonged Dardanelles commitment that threatens his planned northern offensive preparations.

Fisher resists plans to absorb newly built monitors into a continuing Mediterranean commitment at the expense of northern operations.

The conference chaired by Fisher concludes that developing the Forth as a primary fleet base is urgent.

Fisher chairs a conference considering redistribution of the Grand Fleet and the strategic development of Rosyth and the Forth.

Fisher's conference agrees that Scapa Flow should remain an alternative and supporting Grand Fleet base.

Fisher resigns as First Sea Lord after the dispute over continued Dardanelles commitments reaches breaking point.

Plans to strengthen the Dardanelles with monitors intended for Fisher's northern strategy intensify his dispute with Churchill.

Fisher's second tenure as First Sea Lord ends after his wartime resignation.

After leaving the Admiralty, Fisher becomes chairman of the Royal Navy Board of Invention and Research.