First Sea Lord
Field became First Sea Lord in July 1930. The greatest crisis faced by Field at the Admiralty was the pay crisis that soon followed. With the ongoing effects of worldwide depression and budget restrictions, a 25% pay cut was introduced across the fleet and one shilling per day was taken from every naval man. It were these proposed measures which led to the Invergordon Mutiny in September 1931 when the sailors of the Atlantic Fleet at Invergordon left their ships and refused duty. At King George V's insistence, Admiral Sir John Kelly, who was popular with the fleet, was brought out of retirement to take command of the Atlantic Fleet, and the cabinet, acting on Field's advice, hurriedly reconsidered its budget: the pay cuts were restricted to 10% rather than 25%. During the early months of this crisis, Field suffered a perforated ulcer.
It was also primarily Field's work in the Committee of Imperial Defence, that led to the abandonment in 1932 of the 'ten year rule'. This had been an attempt by the treasury to control defence expenditure by requesting the Foreign Office to declare whether there was any risk of war during the next ten years.
Field retired as First Sea Lord in January 1933 as was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 21 January 1933. He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1933 Birthday Honours and was Chairman of the Royal Navy Club of 1765 and 1785 (United 1889) for the years 1935 to 1937. He retired to his home at Escrick Park near Escrick in North Yorkshire where he died from cancer on 24 October 1945.
Read more about this topic: Frederick Field (Royal Navy Officer)
Famous quotes containing the words sea and/or lord:
“Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning—an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
“Some hae meat and canna eat, And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat, And sae the Lord be thanket.”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)