First Sea Lords
Explore notable first sea lords in Royal Navy history.
John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord and major reformer of the Royal Navy before the First World War.
Sir Arthur Wilson
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord in the years before the First World War.
Prince Louis of Battenberg
Rank: Admiral
First Sea Lord at the outbreak of the First World War.
Sir John Jellicoe
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
Grand Fleet commander who later became First Sea Lord.
Sir Rosslyn Wemyss
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord during the later stages of the First World War.
David Beatty
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
Grand Fleet commander who later served as First Sea Lord after the First World War.
Sir Henry Jackson
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord during the First World War and associated with technical modernization.
Sir Ernle Chatfield
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord in the period of naval treaties and strategic retrenchment.
Andrew Cunningham
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
Mediterranean commander who later became First Sea Lord.
Bruce Fraser
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
Senior wartime commander who became First Sea Lord after the Second World War.
Louis Mountbatten
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord in the later 1950s and public face of the postwar navy.
Caspar John
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord in the alliance-based Royal Navy of the 1960s.
Peter Hill-Norton
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Terence Lewin
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord in the later 1970s before rising to higher defence office.
John Fieldhouse
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
Senior wartime commander who later became First Sea Lord.
Julian Oswald
Rank: Admiral of the Fleet
First Sea Lord during the transition out of the Cold War.
Mark Stanhope
Rank: Admiral
First Sea Lord during the period of defence retrenchment and ongoing expeditionary operations.