Early Life and Naval Career
The grandson of the portrait painter George Richmond and son of another artist, Sir William Blake Richmond the Slade Professor at Oxford University, Herbert Richmond joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1885. He served on the Australian Station and in the Hydrographic Service before qualifying as a torpedo officer in 1897. He began to develop a serious interest in naval history while serving in HMS Empress of India in 1897-98, HMS Ramillies in 1899, and HMS Canopus in 1899-1900.
In 1900-1903, Richmond served in the flagship of the Channel Fleet HMS Majestic. Promoted to commander in 1903, he became first officer in HMS Crescent, flagship of the Cape of Good Hope Station. He was assigned to the Admiralty in 1906-08, where he served briefly as naval assistant to Admiral John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher. Inspired by the work of the naval historian Julian Corbett, Richmond began to research the naval aspects of the War of the Austrian Succession, which he completed in 1914, but which was not published until 1920.
Promoted to captain, Richmond commanded HMS Dreadnought from 1909 to 1911, then, in 1911-12, the Torpedo School training ships HMS Furious and HMS Vindictive. In 1912, he founded the Naval Review (magazine), in order to promote innovative thought within the Royal Navy. Richmond became assistant director of operations on the Naval Staff from 1913 to 1915 and liaison officer to the Italian Fleet in 1915. From those assignments, he went on to command HMS Commonwealth (part of a pre-dreadnought battle squadron at the Nore) from 1916 to 1917, and HMS Conqueror in the Grand Fleet (1917–18), served as director of staff duties and training in 1918, and commanded HMS Erin in 1919.
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