Ernle Chatfield, 1st Baron Chatfield
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Admiral of the Fleet Alfred Ernle Montacute Chatfield, 1st Baron Chatfield PC RN (1873-1967) was a British naval officer and held the position of First Sea Lord from 1933to 1938.
[edit] Early Royal Navy Career
Chatfield was born in Southsea, the only son of Admiral Alfred John Chatfield, and entered the Royal Navy in 1886. During the First World War he served as Flag Captain of HMS Lion and was present at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1914, at the Battle of Dogger Bank (1915) in 1915 and at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.
After the war Chatfield served as Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy from 1925 to 1928, as Commander-in-Chief of the Atlantic Fleet from 1929 to 1930 and of the Mediterranean Fleet from 1930 to 1932, and as First Sea Lord from 1933 until 1938. He was promoted to Admiral in 1930 and to Admiral of the Fleet in 1935, and in 1937 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Chatfield, of Ditchling in the County of Surrey.
[edit] Minister for Coordination of Defence
In 1939 Lord Chatfield succeeded Sir Thomas Inskip as Minister for Coordination of Defence in the government of Neville Chamberlain, despite having a non-political background. In this role his view of Russia in 1939 as a possible ally against Germany was that she "would be of considerable, though not of great, military value". However as the Cabinet continued to discuss a possible alliance he said that:
"...if for fear of making an alliance with Russia we drove that country into the German camp we should have made a mistake of vital and far-reaching importance".
Chatfield also advocated transforming the British economy into war production before war broke out in 1939 by curtailing domestic consumption. However Oliver Stanley at the Board of Trade refused, arguing that such a move would be 'revolutionary' in peacetime. Chatfield served as Minister for Coordination of Defence through the outbreak of the Second World War, but exercised little influence. He was asked to resign in April 1940 and the post was abolished.
| Military Offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Frederick Field |
First Sea Lord 1933–1938 |
Succeeded by: Sir Roger Backhouse |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by: Sir Thomas Inskip |
Minister for Coordination of Defence 1939 |
Succeeded by: — |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by: New Creation |
Baron Chatfield 1937–1967 |
Succeeded by: Ernle David Lewis Chatfield |
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