Ideas and Institutions: The Development of Officer Education, Strategic Thinking, and Intelligence Collection in the Royal Navy, 1870–1888

Abstract

The chapter traces the strategic ideas embodied in the Naval Defence Act to their genesis, foregrounding the linkage between culture, history, and strategy. The catalyst was John Knox Laughton, who argued that the Navy’s history could yield insights that were just as relevant in the ironclad era as they were to the age of sail. Laughton’s influence on the course of naval strategic thought was profound, especially within the Admiralty’s intelligence department, founded in 1882. Under the direction of Captain William Hall the department applied Laughton’s methodology to war planning. In 1888 one of Hall’s memoranda became the basis for the Naval Defence Act’s shipbuilding program, thanks to a public campaign led by Lord Charles Beresford that browbeat the government into authorizing a large increase in the fleet.