Sir Archibald Lucius Douglas (8 February 1842, Quebec, Canada - 12
March 1913, Newnham, Hampshire, England) was a Royal Navy officer of the
19th century.
He is the son of Dr.
George Mellis Douglas and
his wife Charlotte Saxton Campbell, (1820-1852), and brother of
Campbell Mellis Douglas, VC.
Douglas was born in Quebec City in pre-Confederation Canada in 1842.
Educated at the Quebec High School, he joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in
1856.
He was selected to head the second British naval mission to
Japan in 1873, and served as a foreign advisor to the fledgling Imperial
Japanese Navy until 1875.
Douglas was based at the Imperial
Japanese Navy Academy, then located at Tsukiji in Tokyo, where he trained
a class of 30 officers. During his tenure, his advice was called upon for
the Taiwan Expedition of 1874, the first major overseas deployment for the
Japanese navy.
During his stay in Japan, he is also credited with
having introduced the sport of soccer to Japanese naval cadets.
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Douglas commanded HMS Egeria on
an intelligence gathering mission to Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka, which he
found to have been abandoned by its Russian garrison.
Douglas was
promoted to Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station in 1898 and Second
Naval Lord in 1899. Promoted to Vice Admiral in June 1901, he was
appointed Commander-in-chief of the North American Station in 1902. He
went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1904 and retired from the
service in 1907.
In 1910 he was made an honorary LL.D. of McGill
University; in 1902 he was created a KCB, in 1905 a GCVO, and in 1911 a
GCB.
Douglas died in Hampshire, England in 1913
He
married in 1871 Constance, a daughter of the Rev. William Hawks, formerly
rector of Gateshead Fell, Durham, and had three sons and three daughters.
Mrs. Douglas (as she was known then) was godmother to HMS Lancaster in
March 1902
He had
six children:-
- Archibald Douglas, Commander R.N. Killed in action 1915.
Biographer of his father (See below).
- John Charles Edward Douglas, Major 10th Yorkshire Regiment.
Killed in action 1915.
- David William Shafto Douglas, b.1883, married 1914 the
daughter of Charles Stevenson of Edinburgh. He was Lieut Commander
of the "Black Prince" and was killed in action in 1915.
- Gertrude Isabel, d1956, m 1919 Thomas Arthur Champernowne.
- Lilian
- Mary, wife of Major Sloman
The following is a review of his biography. Out of print, copies are
now changing hands at around £115. His grand daughter, Elizabeth
Kellock(1), also wrote about the Admiral.
"LIFE OF ADMIRAL SIR ARCHIBALD LUCIUS
DOUGLAS, G.C.B., G.C.V.O."
FOUNDER OF THE JAPANESE NAVY
By his son ARCHIBALD C. DOUGLAS.
(Mortimer Bros., Totnes. 8s. 6d.)
THE life record of Admiral
Douglas was one which deserved to be
written, though the claim that he
was the founder of the Japanese Navy
and one of Canada's greatest men
can hardly be substantiated. Still,
'no man attains to the status of
Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth,
without having shown great ability of
a kind and having had a career
which must be worth the telling if
properly told. This book, however,
is almost an example of the way in
whilch a naval biography should not
be written. It tells us things
which should not have been told, such as
petty and rather spi(tefu1
gossip about royal tie^, and of narrow-minded
and foolish prejudices
on the part of the subject of the biography :
it leaves untold much
that one would like to know. It is moreover full
of errors both of
fact and phrasing, errors which might have been
easily eliminated,
though the author tells us " that a #distinguished
admiral has read
and criticized the book "-one can only presume that
the distinguished
admiral has let Mr. Douglas down very badly, or
else that the author
has disregarded his criticisms. A few of these
errors may be quoted to
show that this is not a captious criticism.
H.M.S. Egeria, a composite
sloop which Commander Douglas com-
manded in 1879, had the misfortune
to g~ound on a rock in China. He
uses the " steam " hemp cable to
heave her off. She is docked and
he sees that her " false bottom " is
greatly damaged and some of the
copper sheets displacfad : it is quite
obvious from the contcext that th'e
damage was to her false keel. At
the end of this commission he must
have been promot'ed to captain,
since he then remaineld two years on
half-pay : we are not told lof
the promotion, yet in th~e next chapter
we find him still described as
a commander, though in command of the
Serapis, on'e of the Indian
Troopers, a post always held by a junior
captain. Errors of this kind
might be adlded to almost indefinitely.
This is not to say that the
story with all its faults is without interest.
Admiral Douglas was
born in 1842, son of a Canadian doctor. He
entered th'a Navy at the
age of 14 through a nomination obtained from the Governor of Canada. We
are told that he was " post'ed " to
H.M.S. Boscawen, the flagship of
the West Indian Station. His entry
examination, conducted by the naval
instructor, consisted of the proof
that he was able to write English
from dictation and was acquainted
with the first four rules of
arithmetic, reduction and the rule of three.
He was confirmed as
midshipman I 5th of May, 1858. We are told that
he remained in this
rank for one year only, and that in September, 1859,
he was appointed
sub-lieutenant in H.M.S. Arrogant being then only
17+ years of age. It
may possibly have been an acting vacancy, but
even so it was a
surprisingly rapid advancement. Young Douglas
seems to have taken part
in the suppression of the slave trade 'during
the next year or two,
but no details are extant. A story is however
quoted on the authority
of the late Admiral Sir Walter Hunt-Grubbe
of the capture of a Spanish
slaver in which Douglas, now described
as an acting lieutenant, took
part-this must have been within some
two or three years of his being
rated midshipman.
We do not hear that he had the advantage of any
course at the
Naval College, nor of his rank as lieutenant being
confirmed. VCTe
jump from the last slaving incident to the American
lakes, where he
was employed during the Fenian disturbances in 1866.
He was then
a lieutenant an'd in command of the gunboat Hercules, a
tender to
H.M.S. Aurora. It was some 40 years later that he was
awarded a
medal for this service. One presumes that Douglas must in
the mean-
time have acquired an education somehow, but the details are
left to
the imagination. We are about this time given extracts from a
so-called
" log book " ; presumably a journal. One of these is of
topical interest
as it refers to the Jamaica Riots and the
supersession of Governor
E. J. Eyre. He mentions that every officer
upon the station contributed
a day's pay towards the defence fund of
Governor Eyr'e, who was
ultimately acquitted.
We do not hear when
Douglas terminated his services in the Aurora
nor of his appointment
to the Egeria, but later we are told that his com-
mission in the
latter ship ended tin 1867, when he was " post'ed " to
H.M.S.
Excellent for gunnery duties, shortly after being transferred
to
1I.M.S. Cambridge at Devonport where he was senior staff officer.
One
of his duties was to study the Harvey torpedo, a newly invented
weapon
from which much was expected. Much space is devoted to
th'e way in
which poor Harvey the inventor was treated by the Admiralty,
a maLter
which, t'hough it does not bear very directly upon the career
of
Admiral Douglas, is of interest as relating to the early history of the
torpedo. It may perhaps be well to mention that the Harvey was a
contraption somenhat after the style of the mod'ern paravane, with a
contrivance whereby the torpedo could be detonated against the hull of
an enemy which might be attempting to ram. It was an impracticable
affair and one can hardly wonder that the Admiralty were not over
enthusiastic as to its merits.
Captain Foley (of the Britannia) wrote
to Douiglas at this time :
" I congratulate you on your promotion . .
. myself I am not much
in love with your I-Iarvey's torpedo ". The
aulthor believes that his
father had faith in the future of the
invention.
Presumably the promotion referred to by Captain Foley was
to the
rank of commander, for we h'ear rhat Douglas's marriage took
place in
1871 at the end of his term in the Cambridge. In those days
it was
not considered the right thing for an officer to marry before
mounting
the three stripes. We get no indication as to why Douglas was
selected
as a gunnery officer nor on what grounds hIe obtained the
position
of senior staff officer. Gunnery was of course in a very
elementary
stage, but he must have shown some aptitude ; of this we
hear nothing.
The reason for his selection for what was " one of the
most important
and successful achievements of his life ", the
appointment to Japan, is
more easily diagnosed; he was the most
promising, capable and up-to-
date gunnery man of his day. It is with
this section of the book which
deals with his work in Japan that the
reader will be most disappointed.
Chapter IV gives us an excellent and
concise summary of the history
of Japan from the first contact with
Europe until the long embargo on
the ruling of foreigners was broken
by forced treaties with Britain and
the U.S.A.
Chapter V opens
with the statement that Commander Archibald
Douglas was appointed
Director and Commander of the Naval Mission
to Japan which was to be
dispatched to Tokio at the request of the
Japanese Government. The
personnel of the Commission consisted of
one lcomrnander, one gunnery
lieutenant, one chief engineer, two as-
sistant engineers (warrant
officers), two boatswains, two gunners, one
carpenter; also 20 petty
officers and seamen. They were to proceed to
the Imperial Naval
College, which would seem to indicate that an
instructional
organization already existed. There is given (p. 37) a
photographic
reproduction of a fine building designated " Caldets
Quarters, Naval
College " which was presumably in being when the
commission arrived.
The Commander's appointment was for a tern1 of three years at a
salary of £950 a year, which as he was also drawing half-pay may be
considered fairly liberal. Commander Douglas threw up the appoint-
ment after two years, as he felt, probably with reason, that such a
long absence from the naval service might prejudice his chances of
promotion. Though his a,ction is understandable, it hardly suggests
whole-hearted enthusiasm for his task.
We are not given any details as
to the naval organization which
existed in Japan at the time when the
Commission arrived, or in what
manner the linguistic difficulties were
overcome. None of the Com-
mission appear to have been acquainted with
the Japanese language;
on the other hand th,e officials with whom they
had to deal appear to
have had a surprisingly good acquaintance with
English. The orders
which are here quoted might well shame some
examples of official
English in our own country. The staff brought out
by Commander
Douglas appear to have been ~vell chosen, and they gave
no trouble
whatever. We hear very little about the manner of
instruction.
In Chapter VIII we are given an amusing account of the
opposition
which Douglas encountered in attempting to introduce
athletic sports
on English lines. The three-legged race was
particularly offensive, to
the conservative mind.
" Again what
outrageous style of thing is this item marked No. 9 in
the programme?
This two-headed, three-legged affair? Is this a prospec-
tive
punishment for lads who may behave in a dissipated or wicked way
hereafter, or is it perhaps a wav of patching up two oripples from the
war into one soldier? But the Navy and the Amy are two different places,
surely such an individual would be rather in the way on board ship."
Commander Douglas particularly prided himself in that Admirals
Ito
and Togo, the two great naval heroes of the young navy, had
passed
under his tuition. They do not seem to have been very young
' at the
t~ime, for Ito was then commanding the Tsukuba, the vessel in
which
the cadets were taken for cruises. Douglas took part in at least
one
of thmese cruises, but had no executive authority. His ord'ers are
given in extewso and we read :
" Your duty will be to organize the
vessel as much like an English man
of war as possible. ' '
" You
are on no account to give any orders yourself or even to speak
to the
crews. "
Every order had to pass through a Japanese intermediary.
On p. 72, in a letter to the Admiralty, we find the following :
" It
is almost impossible to establish and carry out a complete system
with
a people like the Japanese to whom anything like order or discipline
is foreign."
This statement is however neutralized by anoth'er, a page
or two later-
" The Japanese appear to possess the requisite elements
for making
good seamen. They are hardy, fearless, active and easily
controlled. Up
to the present time for lack of efficient officers they
are but half trained
and disciplined. ' ' There is no doubt that on
the whole the Government was pleased
with the services rendered by
Commander Douglas, but they made no
difficulty about accepting his
resignation. As the rest of the Commission
remained behind it seems
possible that they were rather pleased to
muddle along in their own
way without his assistance. The extracts
given as from Douglas's
journals are phrased in a most peculiar style.
I quote one of them
written at this period as typical of all-
" I go down to Yokdhaina and
visit Clark and Captain Church, pay
my bill and home by the 2.30
train. At five o'clock we are to start, but
are not ready then.
Carriages don't come till late and we miss the train.
Japanese sailors
are drawn up to see me off, and I come out the other
end. Put up at
the Grand Hotel. Mr. K. dines with me, am so tired
and done up."
Douglas and his family went home via the U.S.A. and experienced
many
tribulations en route; we are given some observations upon the
Mormons
and Salt Lake City. During this voyage the author, as
throughout the
book, is rather inclined to insist too much upon his own
personal
memories, allowable perhaps were it his own autobiography,
but which
have no appropriate place in his father's life and take up
space to
the exclusion of more important details. Soon after his return
to
England, Commander Douglas was appointed to I-I.M.S. Egeria.
In her he
served a nearly four years commission in China; then came
promotion,
half-pay and the troopship service already referred to.
Whilst in the
Serapis he was present as an onlooker at the battles of
El Teb and
Tamai, his only war service if the Canadian Lakes be
excluded. He
receivled the Klhedive's Bronze Star and, we are told, a
bronze war
medal; but this last is one of the many small errors, the
medal as
usual being a silver one. Next came three years' service on
the
Ordnance Committee and then a commission in H.M.S. Edinburgh
in the
Mediterranean at the time when Sir George Tryon, for whom he
had a
great admiration, was doing such notable work with the fleet.
On p.
145 we are to1,d an absurd and impossible story of which it is
difficult to make anything, even supposing the distance given to be
a
numerical error. It is intended to #demonstrate Sir Greorge's insist'ence
on absolute obedience, no matter how strange the signal might seem.
" The Edznburglz and U~zdaunted, these being the two leading ships
of the line, they came together, and in obedience to an order by signal
from the flagship to anchor at zoo cables apart, they proceeded to do
so.
No sooner had they anchored than a mast-head semaphore message was
taken from the flagship saying ' I ordered the Edznburgh and Undaunted
to
anchor at zoo cables '.
" Though they were in fact anchored at
that exact distance, my father
knew Tryon too well to argue with him
and he at once gave the order to
' anchor up ' intendilng as he said
to open out and come in again, and
anchor as before. From the bridge
of the Edinburgh he could see the
Admiral come out on the stern walk
of the flagship and have a look : and
a signal immediately went up the
Edinburgh and Undaunted are in station. "
It is difficult to imagine
how such events could have been visible to
a ship distant twenty miles
from the flagship. We are further given
what purports to be Captain
Douglas's views as to the actual cause of
the disastrous collision
between the Victoria and the Camperdown.
He believed that the signal
was made as a test of initiative; but surely
if there was need of any
such display it was in the flagship herself,
which might have led the
way for her line outside the other column.
In the author's own words "
Commander " Douglas had left the station
at the time of the disaster.
The next sphere of usefulness was an appointment to the command
of
the Cambridge gunnery school, from which he passed on to the
Excellent, which was I fancy not a usual arrangement. Then followed
another spell at the Ordnance Committee, a most useful penetration
into the Admiralty Ring at a critical period in his career, for very
shortly came his promotion to rear-admiral and an offer of the command
of the East Indian station. We read (p. 154) " At the time my father
was offered the command in the East Indies he was suffering from a
nervous breakdown . . . but the doctor advised him to accept the
appointment which he did ".
One hopes that the statement as to his
father's health is over
emphasized, or it seems that such acceptance
was taking quite an un-
warranted risk with the welfare of the
Service. No ill results followed,
however, and his conduct of the
station must have been excellent, since
he does not appear to have
completed his full time when early in 1900
he was appointed Second Sea
Lord. In this connection we read-
" He was very popular with the
civilian element and the political
people who govern that mysterious
My known to the Navy as the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty. "
He served with two First Lords, Mr. (afterwards Lord) Goschen and
later with Lord Selborne, then a very young Minister.
From the
Admiralty Sir Archibald Douglas (for he had been
knighted about this
time) was appointed Commander-in-Chief ,in North
America and the West
Indian station.
" I think ", writes his son, " the appointment to this
squadron pleased
him more than any other in his long career. He was as
we have seen a
Canadian by birth, and the Calnadians regarded it as a
great compliment
to have a Canadian succeed Lard Fisher in command of
the Station."l
During his period in command Sir Archibald Douglas had
to deal
with a most difficult and thorny bit of diplomacy in
connection with
1 Actually he succeeded Sir Frederick Bedford, Sir
John Fisher's successor.
what was known as the Venezuela Incident
(1903). Already difficult
on account of the Monroe policy, the affair
was complicated by somewhat
rash and indiscreet action on the part of
the Commodore.
There is no doubt that Douglas added greatly to his
reputation by
his handling of this affair, and paved th~ way for his
last appointment
to the Blue Ribbon of the Naval Service, the
Portsmouth Command,
in which he again succeeded Lord Fisher. In the
interval he presided
over a most vitally important committee which was
to discuss the future
of Naval Education, the result being embodied in
the well known
Douglas Report. From the opinions here quoted by his
son one gathers
that there was a good deal of the die-hard about the
Chairman, but
with such men as Slade, Bacon and Oliver to provide more
modern
ideas he could hardly go wrong. Incidentally we hear of an
Admiral
Sir R . H. Morri~,~ K.C.B., K.C.M .G., giving evidence, a name
which
somehow does not sound familiar.
It was during Sir A.
Douglas's tenure of the Portsmouth Command
that the celebrated " On
the Knee " mutiny at the Naval Barracks took
place. One would have
been glad to know something of the Com-
mander-in-Chief's views on the
handling of the case by the Commodore
instead 'of such inanities as
that Winston Churchill was " a cocksure
little chap ".
Sir
Archibald hauled down his flag for the last time in 1907. He
died on
the 13th March, 1913.
Though the author fails to convey to the reader any suggestion of
" greatness ", he does give the impression of a forceful personality
full of common sense and honesty. It is a pity that his life should not
have been more adequately dealt with. The illustrations are weirld in
the extreme; they seem to be reproductions from the typical lower deck
artist's ideas of a ship in a storm, etc. A critic however suggests to
me that they are quite as good as much futuristic work loudly
acclaimed
by the experts of the day. There is a good index and the
volume is
very well bound.
B. M. C.
Notes:
1. Elizabeth Kellock is the granddaughter of Admiral
Douglas. She has had wide experience in broadcasting work with
the Overseas Service of the BBC, and in the Middle East and South Africa,
on educational and commercial subjects. Her published work includes a
history of equitation and articles in the Sunday Telegraph, Punch and
other newspapers and journals.
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