Background

Born on December 5, 1859, at Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom, John Jellicoe was the heir to a long naval tradition. He was the son of John Henry Jellicoe, a captain in the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, and Lucy Henrietta Jellicoe (née Keele).

Education

Before he was 13 years old, Jellicoe was in the navy training to be an officer. He was educated at Field House School in Rottingdean and then joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman in the training ship HMS Britannia in 1872. Two years later Jellicoe was a midshipman on a two and one-second year cruise of the sailing vessel Newcastle.

In 1877 he was with the fleet at the Dardanelles during the Russo-Turkish War and, as the result of his excellent record there, was sent to the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. Over two years, Jellicoe studied at the Naval College and focused on gunnery and torpedoes at HMS Excellent before leaving to serve aboard HMS Alexandra in the Mediterranean as a signal sub-lieutenant. Before 1880 was out, he had been promoted to Lieutenant.

Career

Courses in gunnery and torpedo development at HMS Excellent brought him into contact with John Fisher; when Fisher moved to the Admiralty as director of naval ordnance under the auspices of the Naval Defence Act of 1889, Jellicoe joined him in revamping fifty-two warships. Jellicoe was promoted to the grade of commander in 1891, and the following year was an invalid for a period when his ship, the Victoria, was rammed by the Camperdown in the Mediterranean; after recovering, Jellicoe commanded HMS Ramillies from 1893 to 1896, making captain the following year.

In 1898 he was sent to East Asian waters as chief of staff to Admiral Seymour. There he was largely responsible for setting up the Chinese village of Weihaiwei as a British naval station. He later went as the leader of an international force that tried unsuccessfully to relieve Peking during the Boxer Rebellion, where he was seriously wounded.

Fisher appointed Jellicoe Director of Naval Ordnance in February 1905, and in this capacity, Jellicoe assisted in the design of the Dreadnought; two years later he was promoted to rear admiral and knighted by King Edward VII. Jellicoe was securely in the "Fishpond," and in October 1908 was appointed third sea lord; as such he was instrumental in securing the eight battleships in the 1909/1910 naval estimates.

In 1910, when his tour at the Admiralty was over, Jellicoe, then a vice admiral, was given command of the Atlantic fleet and in 1911 the second division of the Home Fleet. In 1912 he was back at the Admiralty as second sea lord. The prewar crisis moved rapidly toward its climax, and Jellicoe was assigned on August 4, 1914, when Britain entered the war, to be commander in chief of the British Grand Fleet, with his flag aboard the Iron Duke.

Vice-Admiral Jellicoe commanded 60,000 officers and men and in his hands rested the security of the British Isles. If he had a fault, it was that he could not easily delegate authority, preferring to shackle his time with routine administrative duties. The first few months of the war brought little action for the Grand Fleet. The Germans remained in port and the British distant blockade forced inaction on the war at sea.

The new lair at Scapa Flow was made safe against torpedo attacks and Cromarty and Rosyth were put into full use. Jellicoe was promoted to the grade of admiral in 1915, but the few German "tip-and-run" raids on the English east coast involved primarily Admiral David Beatty's cruisers and Commodore Tyrwhitt's Harwich Force; the Germans made no attempt to break the British stranglehold on the exits of the North Sea.

All this changed for one brief moment on May 31, 1916, when the British light cruiser Galatea sighted the German light cruisers under Admiral Franz Hipper off the coast of Denmark in the Skagerrak at 2:20 P.M. The German High Sea Fleet under Admiral Reinhard Scheer had put out to sea for another routine search of the waters north of Jutland, but British intelligence had intercepted their signal to get up steam, and hence the Grand Fleet left Scapa Flow to intercept the Germans even before the latter left port.

Shortly before 3:00 P.M. on May 31, Beatty's battle cruisers sighted Hipper's Scouting Forces. Beatty at once gave chase, but by 4:33 P.M. sighted the masts of the High Sea Fleet coming up from the south and put about to the north. Beatty became the prey: he hoped to lure the Germans northward onto the mighty columns of the Grand Fleet. Jellicoe got word of Scheer's approach about 6:14 P.M., and deployed his forces on his right wing; however, as the six columns of twenty-four dreadnoughts and accompanying craft drew into a long battle line, his vision was temporarily blurred and his ships silhouetted against the glare of the setting sun. But at 6:23 P.M. he crossed Scheer's T. Nine British battleships opened fire at that moment.

Outgunned and outmaneuvered, Scheer wheeled 180 degrees, thereby allowing Jellicoe to assume position between the High Sea Fleet and the mainland. At 7:10 P.M., Scheer wheeled his forces about and came at the British once again in line ahead; for a second time his fleet took a terrible pounding from Jellicoe's dreadnoughts and only a second 180-degree turn extricated his forces from certain annihilation. To ward off a massed attack by German torpedo boats, Jellicoe turned 45 degrees to the east and, as night descended, was still in position between Scheer and his home bases. Scheer, however, managed to reach his sanctuary under cover of darkness. The next morning the Grand Fleet stood off the Elbe estuary in vain awaiting the renewal of battle with the High Sea Fleet.

The British public, when apprised of the heavy losses especially of the battle cruisers Indefatigable, Invincible, and Queen Mary blamed the drawn battle on Jellicoe's temerity and lack of Nelsonian stature. Yet Winston Churchill put the battle of Jutland into proper perspective. In November 1916 Jellicoe was transferred to the Admiralty as first sea lord and devoted his attention to the German submarine menace.

He had serious doubts about the efficacy of the convoy system, which drew from David Lloyd George the ringing rejoinder that Jellicoe was the embodiment of Admiralty maladministration; the new first lord of the Admiralty, Sir Eric Geddes, hardly calmed a charged atmosphere by seconding the prime minister's stance. Jellicoe's obfuscation over the convoy issue brought forth charges that he had a "tendency to be absorbed in detail" and that he "attempted to do too much himself." Finally, on Christmas Eve 1917, Geddes rather curtly dismissed Jellicoe as first sea lord.

In January 1918, he was raised to the peerage as Viscount Jellicoe, of Scapa, and in 1919 received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament, a grant of £50,000, and promotion to the grade of admiral of the fleet. Early in 1919, Jellicoe left on an inspection cruise to India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. In August 1920, he was appointed governor-general of New Zealand, retiring from this post as well as from the service in 1924. In June of the following year, he was advanced to the rank of Earl Jellicoe. The former commander in chief of the Grand Fleet died in Kensington on November 20, 1935, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral alongside Nelson.

Jellicoe published The Grand Fleet, 1914-16, Its Creation, Development and Work (1919) and The Crisis of the Naval War (1921).

Achievements

• John Rushworth Jellicoe, First Earl Jellicoe is particularly known as the commander of the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the strategic victory that maintained British command of the sea, when his Admiralty team made a critical contribution to the defeat of the U-boat offensive. As the First Sea Lord, the professional head of the Navy, he oversaw the introduction of convoy and the evolution of a proper Naval Staff at the Admiralty.
  
  Jellicoe was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath and in 1902 given the German Order of the Red Eagle, 2nd class, with Crossed Swords for services rendered in China. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on February 8, 1915. He was also appointed a member of the Order of Merit on May 31, 1916, advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order on June 17, 1916, and awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour on September 15, 1916.
  
  Among his international awards are Grand Cordon of the Belgian Order of Leopold, Order of St. George, 3rd Class, Grand Cross of the Military Order of Savoy and the Grand Cordon of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun.
  
  For his services in World War I, Jellicoe was raised to the peerage as Viscount Jellicoe of Scapa in 1918. On his return from New Zealand and in recognition of his services as governor, he was created an earl and Viscount Brocas of Southampton in 1925.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Grand Fleet: 1914 to 1916

    (This history of the British Grand Fleet from 1914 to 1916...)

    1919
  • Battle of Jutland, 30th May to 1st June, 1916

    (Official Dispatches with Appendixes)

  • The Crisis of the Naval War 1920

Politics

As governor-general of New Zealand, John Jellicoe was regularly consulted by William Massey, the prime minister, about imperial affairs, and often took the initiative in providing comment on dispatches passing through his hands. On naval policy, which both he and Massey regarded as an imperial matter, his involvement breached the convention that the governor-general does not intervene in domestic politics; at the time, both Liberal and Labour parties were attacking the government's policy. Massey could with justification describe Jellicoe, who was always careful to give his advice discreetly, as 'an invaluable counsellor'.

Jellicoe bolstered the government's resistance to any change in the constitutional framework of the British empire which might seem to weaken imperial unity. During the Chanak crisis of 1922, he prompted New Zealand's almost instant offer to send troops in support of the empire against Turkey.

A wider constitutional question was raised when he privately advised Massey to protest against the British Labour administration's decision in 1924 to end work on the Singapore naval base, the key to British power in the Pacific region. In making suggestions as to the wording of the cable to be sent to the imperial authorities in London, he took a stance against the British government, which he represented in the dominion.

Jellicoe's strong imperial patriotism struck a chord with most New Zealanders, and he created a firm preference for distinguished servicemen as governors general.

Views

While serving at the Admiralty during the first decade of the century, Jellicoe was heavily involved in the development of the British battle fleet, as it adjusted to the demands of new technology and the threat posed by the growing German navy.

During his year-long mission to advise dominion governments – India, Australia and at last New Zealand, he visited ports throughout the country and carried out many social engagements, while preparing a three-volume report for the government. This emphasised the necessity of a Pacific fleet with adequate docking facilities to counter a possible threat from Japan, and set out ways in which New Zealand could contribute to the fleet. Financial stringency prevented the full implementation of his recommendations, but New Zealand did follow his suggestion in creating, in 1921, a New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy.

Jellicoe was a supporter of the British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism), a pseudoarchaeological belief that the people of the British Isles are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel.

Membership

The grand master of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand from 1922 to 1923, he served as patron of many charitable organisations and was especially interested in all ex-servicemen's matters.

Jellicoe was president of the British Legion from 1928 to 1932. He was actively involved in many organisations, including the Boy Scouts' Association and the National Rifle Association.

• President

  British Legion , United Kingdom

  1928 - 1932

• The Grand Master

  Grand Lodge of New Zealand

  1922 - 1923

Personality

Jellicoe was known for his charming and happy disposition as well as for his great self-control. Jellicoe's strengths had been his selflessness, his "instinctive ability which practice gives to size up a situation" quickly, his imperturbable calm, and the utter lack of recriminatory actions. His detractors claim that he was overly confident, that pride often interfered with decision making.

Jellicoe was an active governor-general, travelling widely throughout New Zealand and enthusiastically participating in sports such as cricket, golf, fishing and shooting. He was especially active in yachting, helping found the X-class boats and presenting the Sanders Cup; he took part in the first Sanders Cup series, and other national contests, and was patron of many yachting clubs. He also presented a challenge trophy for competition in rifle marksmanship between schools.

The fact that he was a man of action, who had risen to the top of his profession without the benefit of wealth or social standing, appealed to many New Zealanders. He was almost a working man's aristocrat. Dispensing with many formalities, he mixed easily with New Zealanders of all classes, who were impressed by his 'simple unassuming manner'. He also made a point of meeting with Maori.

Quotes from others about the person

• Sir Winston S. Churchill: "Jellicoe was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon."

Interests

• travelling

• Sport & Clubs

  cricket, golf, fishing, shooting, yachting

Connections

On July 1, 1902, Jellicoe married Florence Gwendoline Cayzer, daughter of the shipping magnate Sir Charles Cayzer. The marriage produced six children - a son and five daughters. The son George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe had an illustrious military career during the Second World War, followed by prominent careers as parliamentarian and businessman.

Father:

John Henry Jellicoe

(1825 - 1914)

John Henry Jellicoe was a captain in the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.

Mother:

Lucy Henrietta Jellicoe (née Keele)

Spouse:

Florence Gwendoline Jellicoe

(1877-1964)

Florence Gwendoline Jellicoe (née Cayzer), Countess Jellicoe, was a daughter of the shipping magnate Sir Charles Cayzer.

Daughter:

Norah Beryl Cayzer Rhys Wingfield (Jellicoe)

(1910 - 2003)

Daughter:

Lady Gwendoline Lucy Constance Rushworth Latham (Jellicoe)

(April 14, 1903 - October 23, 1997)

Daughter:

Lady Prudence Katharine Patton Loudon (Jellicoe)

(1913 - 2000)

Son:

George Jellicoe

(April 4, 1918 - February 22, 2007)

George Patrick John Rushworth Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, Baron Jellicoe of Southampton, was a British politician, diplomat and businessman. As well as commanding the Special Boat Service in the Second World War, George Jellicoe was a long-serving parliamentarian, being a member of the House of Lords for 68 years (1939 - 2007).

Friend:

William Massey

(March 26, 1856 - May 10, 1925)

William Ferguson Massey commonly known as Bill Massey, was a politician who served as the 19th Prime Minister of New Zealand from May 1912 to May 1925. He was the founding leader of the Reform Party, New Zealand's second organised political party, from 1909 until his death.

References

• The Life of John Rushworth, Earl Jellicoe A book by Reginald Bacon
  1936
• Jellicoe A biography by Alfred Temple Patterson
  1969
• The Life of Sir John Jellicoe A book by Harold Felix Baker Wheeler
• General French and Admiral Jellicoe A book by Archibald Rae
  1914