On 21 October 1904 he became First Sea Lord as
operational head of the navy. He brought in reforms and
modernized a navy that in many ways had changed little
since Admiral Horatio nelson commanded it in 1804.
In his six years as First Sea Lord (1903–09), he chal-
lenged the naval hierarchy, firing officers he felt were un-
qualified and incapable of performing their duties, and
he began the construction of new Dreadnought battle-
ships. On 9 November 1909, Fisher was ennobled as
Baron Fisher of Kilverstone. He retired from the Admi-
ralty in January 1910, but he was recalled to active duty
by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill (later
prime minister) to replace Prince Louis of Battenburg
(whose German name was held against him) as First
Sea Lord soon after the beginning of the First World
War in 1914. Battenburg’s tenure of office during the
war’s first months had been rocky: Several major British
ships, including the HMS Audacious, had been sunk; the
Germans had defeated two British ships, the HMS Good
Hope and the HMS Monmouth, at the battle of Coronel;
and the blockade of German ports was failing. Fisher’s
first decision was to name Sir John Jellicoe as Admi-
ral of the Grand Fleet. He also assembled a fleet under
the command of Sir Frederick Sturdee to hunt down the
German force of Maximilian Graf Von Spee in the South
Atlantic. Sturdee found and engaged the ships, the Ger-
man cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and their escorts
at the battle of the Falkland Islands (8 December 1914),
destroying all but one ship.
Lord Fisher clashed with his political master, Win-
ston Churchill, over the Allied expedition to the Dar-
danelles, also known as Gallipoli, a landing of British,
Australian, and New Zealand troops to force Turkey out
of the war and deny Germany a southern ally against
Russia. Fisher desired a landing in the Baltic, where Al-
lied forces would meet up with czarist Russian troops to
open up the eastern front against Germany, but he was
overruled by Churchill, and the Gallipoli landings went
ahead. The result was a disaster in which thousands of
Allied troops died, leaving Turkey virtually untouched
and Russia unaided. Fisher, whose advice against the
landings had been ignored, made his feelings known at a
meeting of the War Council on 14 May 1915, complet-
ing the break between him and Churchill. He resigned
his post the following day, and Churchill’s resignation
followed soon after.
Fisher spent his final years in retirement, publishing
his memoirs, Memories and Records, in 1919. He died in
London on 10 July 1920 at the age of 79 and was buried
with full honors at Westminster Abbey in London. He
was mourned as one of the giants of British naval his-
tory. Historian Michael Lee Lanning writes: “With the
exception of Horatio Nelson, Fisher is the dominating
figure in all of British naval history. Intelligent, innova-
tive, opinionated, and dedicated accurately describe him.
His beliefs in placing quality before quantity and his
ability to bring his revolutionary ideas to reality greatly
strengthened the British navy and served as a benchmark
for navies of the world for the following decades.”References: Hough, Richard Alexander, Admiral of the
Fleet: The Life of John Fisher (New York: Macmillan,
1970); Mackay, Ruddock F., Fisher of Kilverstone (Oxford,
U.K.: The Clarendon Press, 1973); Marder, Arthur Jacob,
From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in
the Fisher Era, 1904–1919, 5 vols. (London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1961–70); Fisher, John Arbuthnot, Baron
Fisher, Memories and Records, 2 vols. (New York: George
H. Doran Company 1920); Lanning, Michael Lee, “John
Arbuthnot Fisher,” The Military 100: A Ranking of the
Most Influential Military Leaders of All Time (New York:
Barnes and Noble Books, 1996), 249–251.FitzJames, James See berWick, James
fitzJames, first duke of.Fleetwood, Charles (1618–1692) English general
Born in Northamptonshire, Charles Fleetwood studied
law and was 24 when he joined the Parliamentary forces
upon the outbreak of the first English Civil War in 1642.
As commander of a cavalry regiment, he served at Nas-
eby (14 June 1645), the battle that finally crippled the
Royalist forces of King Charles I. Elected to Parliament
the following year, Fleetwood was named governor of
the Isle of Wight in 1649. After the second English Civil
War broke out, Fleetwood again took up arms against
the Royalist forces, commanding a regiment of cavalry
as a general of horse at Dunbar (3 September 1650) and
Worcester (3 September 1651). He was close to Oliver
cromWell, the Parliamentary commander who became
lord protector of England in place of the monarchy, and
he married Cromwell’s daughter Bridget.
Fleetwood was named to the House of Lords, later
serving as lord deputy, the commander of English troopsFleetwooD, chARleS