Ordnance Committee (Royal Navy)

The Ordnance Committee was constituted in 1881. In 1907, it was amalgamated with the Ordnance Research Board, thereby becoming the Ordnance Board.

It was reconstituted as the Ordnance Committee under the Ministry of Munitions in 1915.

Remit

In a November, 1906, memorandum the Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes, Captain John R. Jellicoe, described the functions and membership of the Ordnance Committee:

The Master General of the Ordnance at the War Office, or his representative the Director of Artillery, approves all designs after having obtained the concurrence of the Director of Naval Ordnance, on the recommendation of the Ordnance Committee.

The Master General of the Ordnance holds the Ordnance Committee directly responsible for the designs of all guns for His Majesty's Service unless their recommendations have been overruled (paragraph 1 of General Instructions for the guidance of Ordnance Committee).

The Committee is composed of officers of the Army and Navy, with two civilian engineers, the total number of members being eleven.

In addition to the work of the Committee in regard to designs of Naval Ordnance material, the preparation of Range Tables and other ballistic work is undertaken by them, and all experimental work is supervised and reported on by the Committee.

The present Ordnance Committee has for its military members mostly officer who have passed through either the inspection or the experimental branches of the Service, and some of the officers who have served on the Committee have undoubtedly considerable knowledge of scientific gunnery, but purely from the Land Service point of view. The Naval Officers are necessarily selected from those who have recently served at sea, and they naturally have, owing to their rank and the nature of their duties afloat, lost touch to a considerable extent with the details of ordnance work. Their period of service on the Committee is limited to three years, and it is not until towards the end of that service that they can be in any way looked upon as experts, although their experience of requirements afloat is always of considerable utility.

Presidents

• Admiral Randolph F. O. Foote, 24 January, 1908
• Major-General Sir Charles F. Hadden, 8 February, 1913
• Commodore, Second Class Arthur W. Craig, 1 February, 1919 – 1 February, 1920
• Rear-Admiral Edward M. Phillpotts, 1 May, 1920 – 8 October, 1923
• Rear-Admiral Henry R. Crooke, 10 October, 1927 – 2 January, 1928
• Rear-Admiral Herbert Willes Webley Hope, 2 January, 1928 – 2 April, 1931
• Vice-Admiral Bernard W. F. Fairbairn, 1 August, 1934 – 2 January, 1936
• Vice-Admiral Arthur F. Pridham, 2 January, 1942 – 26 August, 1945

There may have been a "B. R. Kirwan" between Philpotts and Crooke.^{[Fact Check]}

Vice-Presidents

• Rear-Admiral Edward H. Howard, 1 April, 1881 – 30 April, 1884
• Rear-Admiral Thomas le H. Ward, 1 May, 1884
• Rear-Admiral Henry F. Nicholson, 1 June, 1887 – 30 June, 1889
• Rear-Admiral Compton E. Domvile, 12 June, 1890 – 20 May, 1891
• Rear-Admiral Henry F. Cleveland, 21 May, 1891 – c. September, 1894
• Rear-Admiral Ernest Rice, 21 November, 1894
• Rear-Admiral Archibald L. Douglas, 1 February, 1896 – 15 January, 1898
• Rear-Admiral Albert B. Jenkings, 15 January, 1898 – 1 June, 1900
• Rear-Admiral Charles C. Drury, 1 June, 1900 – 4 June, 1902
• Rear-Admiral Alfred A. C. Parr, 5 June, 1902 – 1 July, 1905
• Rear-Admiral Randolph F. O. Foote, 1 July, 1905 – 2 January, 1908
• Rear-Admiral Randolph F. O. Foote, 2 January, 1908 – 24 January, 1908
• Brigadier-General Arthur P. Penton, 30 January, 1908
• Major-General Robert A. Montgomery, 10 October, 1908
• Colonel Arthur H. P. Turner, 7 September, 1910
• Vice-Admiral Richard B. Farquhar, 1 April, 1913 – 4 December, 1915
• Captain Cuthbert E. Hunter, 4 December, 1915 – 2 April, 1917
• Captain Ronald A. Hopwood, 2 April, 1917 – 25 February, 1919^{[Fact Check]}  (followed by Brigadier Generals A. C. Currie and K. E. Haynes)
• Rear-Admiral Henry R. Crooke, 2 January, 1924 – 10 October, 1927
• Rear-Admiral Bernard W. F. Fairbairn, 2 January, 1932 – 1 August, 1934

Naval Members

Naval members may not have actually served in a strictly serial manner, as we imply by making succession lists, but whatever.

• Captain Cyprian A. G. Bridge, 14 February, 1881
• Captain Morgan Singer, 12 April, 1881
• Captain Hector B. Stewart, 18 October, 1881 – 6 May, 1884
• Captain Albert B. Jenkings, 6 May, 1884
• Captain Tynte F. Hammill, 1 April, 1886
• Captain Herbert W. Dowding, 15 April, 1887 – 5 October, 1889
• Captain Archibald L. Douglas, 22 August, 1887
• Captain Henry J. May, 6 October, 1889
• Captain Robert B. Maconochie, 15 August, 1890 – 20 November, 1893
• Captain Charles C. Drury, 28 January, 1893 – 12 May, 1894
• Captain Percy M. Scott, 20 November, 1893 – 27 May, 1896
• Captain Alfred A. C. Parr, 12 May, 1894
• Captain Henry J. May, 28 May, 1896
• Captain John R. Jellicoe, 9 January, 1897 – 30 December, 1897
• Captain Henry M. T. Tudor, 27 January, 1898 – 13 February, 1900
• Captain Henry D. Barry, 5 January, 1899 – 18 September, 1900
• Captain Randolph F. O. Foote, 18 September, 1900
• Captain Arthur W. Waymouth, 22 September, 1902 – 8 June, 1904
• Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard T. Pease, 20 February, 1903
• Captain Arthur Barrow, 1 April, 1903
• Captain Morgan Singer, 9 June, 1904
• Captain Randolph F. O. Foote, 14 July, 1904
• Captain Arthur H. Limpus, 1 July, 1905 – 30 October, 1907
• Captain Richard H. Peirse, 30 October, 1907 – 2 January, 1908
• Captain Richard H. Peirse, 2 January, 1908 – 16 February, 1909
• Captain Rudolf W. Bentinck, 1 March, 1908
• Captain Arthur W. Waymouth, 16 February, 1909 – 11 January, 1911
• Captain Cecil F. Dampier, 12 January, 1911 – 30 May, 1913
• Captain Cuthbert E. Hunter, 30 May, 1913
• Captain Ronald A. Hopwood, 28 December, 1914 – 4 December, 1915
• Captain Ronald A. Hopwood, 4 December, 1915 – 2 April, 1917
• Captain Cecil Maxwell-Lefroy, 2 April, 1917 – 1 November, 1920
• Captain Oliver Backhouse, 15 September, 1920
• Captain Joseph C. W. Henley, 7 March, 1921 – 1 November, 1922
• Captain Lionel V. Wells, 9 March, 1925 – 14 March, 1927
• Captain Harold G. Jackson, 15 June, 1927
• Captain Geoffrey S. Arbuthnot, 14 March, 1927 – 8 January, 1929
• Captain Arthur J. Power, 24 July, 1929 – 31 March, 1931
• Captain Charles A. A. Larcom, 16 March, 1936 – 31 July, 1937
• Vice-Admiral Edward O. B. S. Osborne, 2 January, 1936 – 1 November, 1940
• Retired Captain Cuthbert W. Swithinbank, 1 March, 1936 – 1939^{[Fact Check]}
• Rear-Admiral Arthur F. Pridham, 1 November, 1940 – 2 January, 1942

Cecil Burnaby Prickett may also have held this position.^{[Fact Check]}

Assistant Secretaries

• Commander Henry J. May, 27 September, 1882
• Commander Frank C. Younghusband, 1 February, 1886 – 5 April, 1887
• Commander Barrington H. Chevallier, 15 April, 1887
• Commander Sir Henry A. Ogle, Bart., 15 April, 1890 – 27 August, 1892
• Commander Joseph Honner, 29 August, 1892 – 14 July, 1896
• Commander Richard B. Farquhar, 24 August, 1896 – 17 January, 1899
• Commander Arthur W. Waymouth, 17 January, 1899 – August, 1902
• Commander Douglas L. Dent, 1 September, 1902
• Commander Mervyn H. Cobbe, 9 November, 1904 – 1 July, 1907
• Commander Percival H. Warleigh, 15 July, 1907 – 1 January, 1908
• Commander Percival H. Warleigh, 1 January, 1908 – 15 February, 1910
• Commander Thomas E. Wardle, 15 February, 1910 – February, 1913
• Commander George P. Bevan, 20 March, 1913
• Commander (retired) Ivor F. Chichester, 1 June, 1915 – 4 December, 1915  (Naval Secretary to the Ordnance Board)
• Commander (retired) Ivor F. Chichester, 4 December, 1915 – 3 March, 1917