Charles Ottley

Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Langdale Ottley (8 February 1858 - 24 September 1932) was an English naval officer.[1]

Ottley was the main naval delegate to the Second Hague Conference in 1907 and took a leading role in drafting the convention limiting the employment of submarine mines.[1] The next year at the International Maritime Conference he accepted limits on the use of economic blockade, a considerable concession as Britain was at the time the world's greatest naval power.[1]

According to the naval historian Andrew Lambert:

He was a man of much charm and no little literary ability, a good linguist, and a fluent, convincing, and persuasive speaker. Despite his many talents, however, he was not a leader. He made the committee of imperial defence a highly effective secretariat and co-ordinating body, but never achieved the influence or eminence of his successor. He was, like many of his contemporaries, exploited to further the aims of Lord Fisher, and then discarded when he was of no further use.[1]
Military offices
Preceded by
Prince Louis of Battenberg		 Director of Naval Intelligence
1905–1907 		Succeeded by
Rear-Admiral Sir Edmond Slade
Government offices
Preceded by
Sir George Clarke		 Secretary to the Committee of Imperial Defence
1907-1912 		Succeeded by
Maurice Hankey

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 H. G. Thursfield, ‘Ottley, Sir Charles Langdale (1858–1932)’, rev. Andrew Lambert, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 13 Jan 2014.

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