Add MS 49007

Vol. XIX, Apr. 1915-1917. Printed for the most part by A. J. Marder, Fear God and Dread Nought, 3 vols., 1952-9.

Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone: Correspondence, etc., with Lord Jellicoe: 1909-1917: Partly typewritten and extract.

includes:

• ff. 45-50b, 65 Captain Thomas Evans Crease, RN: Letters, etc., to Lord Jellicoe: 1915.
• ff. 119-144 Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone: Correspondence with Lord Asquith: 1916: Copies.
• ff. 119-144 Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith; Prime Minister: Correspondence with Lord Fisher: 1916: Copies.

The majority of the correspondence is from Fisher to Jellicoe, giving Fisher's opinions on: appointments; the strengthening of the Navy; Admiralty administration; wireless telegraphy; the submarine threat and anti-submarine devices; seaplanes; Zeppelin attacks; mines; delays in shipbuilding; guns; merchant shipping; and relations with Winston Churchill, Herbert Henry Asquith and Arthur James Balfour.

Much of the correspondence relates to Fisher’s poor opinion of the Dardanelles campaign, his disagreement with Winston Churchill and consequent resignation from the post of First Sea Lord.

Correspondence also refers to Maximilian von Spee and the Battle of the Falkland Islands; Hugo von Pohl; the Battle of Jutland; the Baltic Project; Prime Minister of Australia W.M. Hughes; Jellicoe’s appointment as First Sea Lord and George Edwin Patey’s fears that the armed German liners interned in New York Harbour, including SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich, would escape.

Includes annotated copy of Fisher’s conditions for winning the War, abolishing the submarine menace and returning to office in the Admiralty [following his resignation from the post of First Sea Lord] and notes by Fisher on ‘Special Causes of Grave Anxiety in the present Naval Situation’ [Feb 1916].