North America and West Indies Station

Formed in the mid-1700s, the North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the Royal Navy.

It was renamed the America and West Indies Station in 1926.

History

On 6 December, 1906, the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Earl of Selborne, announced a redistribution of fleets affecting the whole Navy. The cruisers outside European waters were divided into groups: the Eastern; Cape of Good Hope; and the Western.

The Western Group of cruisers will consist of the cruisers under the command of the Commander-in-chief of the North American and West Indian Station and the mobilized cruisers with which he will be reinforced in time of war. At present the cruisers under the command of the Commander-in-chief of the North American and West Indian Station consist of his flag-ship, a first-class protected cruiser, and certain second and third-class cruisers. The Board have decided to withdraw from the station the less effective of those ships and to add to it the ships of the new Particular Service Squadron which they have decided to constitute and of which the Commander-in-chief of this station will be given command.

The situation was clarified in a further command paper on fleet dispositions, dated 15 March, 1905:

The constitution of the Particular Service Squadron under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station, composed of the Flag Ship on that Station, and the five sea-going training ships for cadets, youths, and boys. This forms the Fourth Cruiser Squadron.

Further:

The Fourth Cruiser (Particular Service) Squadron which compromises the Flagship of the Vice-Admiral in command of the North America and West Indies Station, and the several seagoing training ships, will make three cruises annually in the West Indies and in Home and adjacent waters, returning home after each cruise at the dates fixed for changing the classes under training.

Under this arrangement it is estimated that the Fourth Cruiser Squadron will be cruising for 30 weeks, and will be at Home for 22 weeks.

The refit and docking of the ships, and the leave to officers and men, will take place in the course of the time spent in Home waters.

From 8 February, 1907 to 8 February, 1909, Rear-Admiral Frederick S. Inglefield was in command of the squadron, flying his flag in Euryalus. By this time the command-in-chief status and the allusion to the North America and West Indies Station seems to have been abandoned.^[Inference] Inglefield was succeeded at Portsmouth by Rear-Admiral Arthur M. Farquhar on 8 February, 1909.

Rear-Admiral Edward E. Bradford was appointed in command on 8 February, 1911, and struck his flag on 8 February, 1913 upon his relief by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher G. F. M. Cradock.

On 1 May, 1912, the Fourth Cruiser Squadron was renamed the Training Squadron. With Cradock's appointment in 1913 the Fourth Cruiser Squadron ceased to be a training squadron and became part of the First Fleet. It was intended that it should be able to join the Commander-in-Chief in Home waters for manœuvres, but it was in effect permanently detached to protect British interests in Mexico.

Composition

February, 1900

• Alert
• Buzzard
• Comus
• Crescent
• Hermes
• Hotspur
• Indefatigable
• Pearl
• Proserpine
• Psyche
• Quail
• Rocket
• Terror
• Tribune
• Urgent

January, 1901

• Alert
• Buzzard
• Charybdis
• Crescent
• Hotspur
• Indefatigable
• Pallas
• Proserpine
• Psyche
• Quail
• Terror
• Tribune
• Urgent

June, 1906

• Euryalus
• Highflyer
• Hogue
• Indefatigable
• Isis
• Sutlej

On Newfoundland Fisheries:

• Brilliant

November, 1915

• Battleship
  • Cæsar
• Cruisers
  • Leviathan , Carnarvon, Suffolk, Berwick, Cumberland
• Light Cruisers
  • Sydney, Melbourne, Isis
• Armed Merchant Cruisers
  • Caronia, Calgarian

July, 1918

The following forces were working with three vessels in the Ninth Cruiser Squadron.

• Battleship
  • Cæsar
• Cruisers
  • Berwick, Carnarvon (paid off), Cornwall, Cumberland, Devonshire, Donegal, Duke of Edinburgh, King Alfred (paid off), Leviathan, Roxburgh
• Light Cruisers
  • Highflyer, Isis
• Misc
  • sloop Shearwater, yacht Warrior (temporary flag)

Commanders-in-Chief

The station was dubbed "Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station" except for a period from 1907 to 1915, when it was "Rear-Admiral Commanding, Fourth Cruiser Squadron". We put the Fourth Cruiser Squadron on its own page, as it co-existed with the North America and West Indies Station during World War II.

• Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, 1864 – 1867
• Vice-Admiral Sir James Hope, 1864 – 1867
• Vice-Admiral Sir George R. Mundy, 1867 – 1869
• Vice-Admiral Sir George G. Wellesley, 1869 – 1870
• Vice-Admiral Sir Edward G. Fanshawe, 1870 – 1873
• Vice-Admiral Sir George G. Wellesley, 1873 – 1875
• Vice-Admiral Sir Astley Key, 1875 – 1878
• Vice-Admiral Sir Edward A. Inglefield, 1 April, 1878 – 25 May, 1879
• Vice-Admiral Sir Francis L. McClintock, c. mid 1879 – 1882
• Vice-Admiral John E. Commerell, November, 1882 – 1885
• Vice-Admiral The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Clanwilliam, 25 August, 1885
• Vice-Admiral Algernon McL. Lyons, 4 September, 1886
• Vice-Admiral Sir George W. Watson, 15 December, 1888 – 24 March, 1892
• Vice-Admiral Sir John O. Hopkins, 1 February, 1892 – 17 April, 1895
• Vice-Admiral Sir James E. Erskine, 17 April, 1895
• Vice-Admiral Sir John A. Fisher, 15 September, 1897
• Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick G. D. Bedford, 1 May, 1899 – 26 July, 1902
• Vice-Admiral Sir Archibald L. Douglas, 10 June, 1902 – 8 October, 1904
• Admiral Sir Day H. Bosanquet, 1 September, 1904
• Rear-Admiral Robert S. P. Hornby, February, 1915
• Vice-Admiral Sir George E. Patey, 7 March, 1915 – 13 September, 1916
• Acting Vice-Admiral Sir Montague E. Browning, 16 August, 1916
• Admiral Sir William L. Grant, 7 January, 1918 – January, 1919
• Vice-Admiral Morgan Singer, 8 February, 1919  (temporarily)
• Vice-Admiral Sir Trevylyan D. W. Napier, 1 December, 1919 – 30 July, 1920  (died of fever while in command)
• Admiral Sir William C. Pakenham, 16 October, 1920
• Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Culme-Seymour, Bart., 1 January, 1923 – 26 May, 1924
• Vice-Admiral James A. Fergusson, 26 June, 1924 – 1 June, 1926
• Vice-Admiral Walter Henry Cowan, 2 June, 1926 – 22 July, 1928
• Vice-Admiral Cyril T. M. Fuller, 5 June, 1928 – 7 May, 1930
• Vice-Admiral Vernon H. S. Haggard, 21 April, 1930 – 11 May, 1932
• Vice-Admiral Reginald A. R. Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, 2 April, 1932 – 10 November, 1934
• Vice-Admiral The Hon. Matthew R. Best, 11 October, 1934 – c. 26 May, 1937
• Vice-Admiral Matthew R. Best, 11 October, 1934 – 26 May, 1937
• Vice-Admiral Sidney J. Meyrick, 15 April, 1937 – March, 1940
• Vice-Admiral Charles E. Kennedy-Purvis, March, 1940
• Vice-Admiral Alban T. B. Curteis, 1942
• Vice-Admiral Irvine G. Glennie, 1944

Seconds-in-Command

• Rear-Admiral Robert S. P. Hornby, March, 1915 – 21 June, 1915
• Rear-Admiral Morgan Singer, 15 December, 1917  (and as Admiral Superintendent at Bermuda)

Flag Captains

• Captain Arthur Bromley, 19 February, 1920 – 12 September, 1922
• Captain Andrew B. Cunningham, January, 1928 – July, 1928

Other Personnel

Fleet Gunnery Officer

• Lieutenant-Commander (G) Hugh W. Faulkner, 3 August, 1932 – 1934
• Lieutenant-Commander (G) John D. Shaw-Hamilton, 25 October, 1934

Fleet Torpedo Officer

• Lieutenant-Commander (T) John H. Allison, 6 September, 1932
• Lieutenant-Commander (T) Ralph Heathcote, 3 January, 1934  (I am not sure I understand these dates)

Fleet Signal Officer

• Lieutenant (S) The Hon. Anthony Pleydell-Bouverie, 2 April, 1932
• Lieutenant (S) John R. B. Longden, 11 October, 1934

Fleet Navigation Officer

• Lieutenant-Commander (N) Edward W. Kitson, 14 August, 1922 – October, 1923
• Lieutenant-Commander (N) Hugh A. Taylor, 29 October, 1932
• Lieutenant-Commander (N) Godfrey A. French, 25 October, 1934

See Also

• Wikipedia

Bibliography

• Clowes, Sir Wm. Laird (1903). The Royal Navy: A History From the Earliest Times to the Death of Queen Victoria. Vol. VII. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company Limited.
• Corbett, Sir Julian S. (1920). Naval Operations. Volume I. London: Longmans, Green and Co..