Commander-in-Chief, Africa (Royal Navy)

File:Admiralty House 2.JPG

From 1750 to 1779 the Cape of Good Hope became strategically important due to the increasing competition between France and Great Britain for control of the seas.{{cite book|last1=Duigan|first1=Peter|last2=Gann|first2=L. H.|title=South Africa: War, Revolution, or Peace?|date=1978|publisher=Hoover Press|isbn=9780817969936|page=10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5iJ9Ff5ig9IC&q=the+cape+of+good+hope+station+strategically+important+to+france+and+great+britain&pg=PA10|language=en}} In 1780 Holland joined the American Revolutionary War{{cite web|title=Dutch and British Coastal Fortifications at the Cape of Good Hope (1665 to 1829)|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/places/dutch-and-british-coastal-fortifications-cape-good-hope-1665-1829|website=sahistory.org.za|publisher=South African History Online, 2015|access-date=26 November 2016}} in alliance{{cite book|last1=Robbins|first1=Louise E.|title=Elephant slaves and pampered parrots : exotic animals in eighteenth century Paris|date=2002|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore [u.a.]|isbn=9780801867538|page=54|edition= [Online-Ausg.]}} with France and Spain against Great Britain; the British Government were aware of the consequences should the Cape of Good Hope fall and the impact it would have on its trade links with India and put a plan into place to capture the Cape and circumvent its use by the enemy. The first attempt was subject to prolonged delays and the fact that the French were able to reinforce their defences enabled them to successfully defend it from the British attack. From 1781 to 1791 various attempts{{cite web|title=Dutch and British Coastal Fortifications at the Cape of Good Hope (1665 to 1829)|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/places/dutch-and-british-coastal-fortifications-cape-good-hope-1665-1829|website=sahistory.org.za|publisher=South African History Online, 2015|access-date=26 November 2016}} were made to capture the station: all failed and it remained under the control of France and the French were successful in attacking and disrupting the trade cargo of the East India Company's ships that were travelling between Asian subcontinent and Europe.{{cite book|last1=Tucker|first1=Spencer C.|title=A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East [6 volumes]: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East|date=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781851096725|page=1303|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h5_tSnygvbIC&q=British+were+unsuccessful+in+trying+to+capture+cape+of+good+hope+station&pg=PA1303|language=en}} In 1792 hostilities temporarily ceased and by 1793 the Directors of the East India Company expressed their concern{{cite book|last1=Mackay|first1=David|title=In the Wake of Cook: Exploration, Science & Empire, 1780-1801|date=1985|publisher=Victoria University Press|isbn=9780864730251|page=31|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rye3ZTPB6sIC&q=french+control+1780%27s+of+the+cape+of+good+hope&pg=PA30|language=en}} about the cape being retained by the French. The British government and the Admiralty decided to act and successfully retook it in 1795:{{cite book|last1=Baines|first1=Edward|title=History of the Wars of the French Revolution, from the Breaking Point of the War in 1792, to the Restoration of a General Peace in 1815: Comprehending the Civil History of Great Britain and France, During that Period .--|date=1817|publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown|page=146|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3KzSAAAAMAAJ&q=British+were+unsuccessful+in+trying+to+capture+cape+of+good+hope+station&pg=PA146|language=en}} the first Naval base was established at Table Bay.{{cite book|last1=Robbins|first1=Louise E.|title=Elephant Slaves and Pampered Parrots: Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century Paris|date=2002|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9780801867538|page=54|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9tAW0J97M4gC&q=french+control+1780%27s+of+the+cape+of+good+hope&pg=PA54|language=en}}

In 1802 the British government agreed to restore the Cape to the Dutch control but this was not finalized until 1803 and lasted until 1806,{{cite book|last1=Hore|first1=Peter|title=Dreadnought to Daring: 100 Years of Comment, Controversy and Debate in The Naval Review|date=2012|publisher=Seaforth Publishing|location=[S.l.]|isbn=9781848321489|page=200|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qx_OAwAAQBAJ&q=Cape+of+Good+Hope+Station+Royal+Navy&pg=PA198|language=en}} when a new British Administration under William Pitt cancelled the agreement between both countries and re-took the Cape once more in 1806,{{cite book|last1=Ward|first1=Peter A.|title=British naval power in the East, 1794-1805 : the command of Admiral Peter Rainier|date=2013|publisher=Boydell Press|location=Woodbridge|isbn=9781843838487|page=231|edition= 1. publ.}} which effectively from this point on remained under British control. In 1811 the Royal Navy decided it wanted to move from its current base to a new base at Simon's Town bay; however the initial facilities took approximately three years to complete and were not ready until 1814.{{cite book | title=South Africa's Navy - the first Fifty years | publisher=W. J. Flesch & partners | author=Goosen, C | year=1973 | pages=131–132 | isbn=0-949989-02-9}} From 1815 to 1849 the base was mainly used for re-fitting and repair work on vessels and acted as a port of call for nautical surveyors who were mapping the region. During the 1850s and 1860s improvements were made to the dockyard facilities with some being re-built in order to accommodate larger ships. On 17 January 1865, it was combined with the East Indies Station to form the East Indies and Cape of Good Hope Station; however, the station was recreated as a separate station on 29 July 1867. From 1870, it absorbed the former West Africa station.[http://www.pdavis.nl/WestAfr.htm On the West African Station, 1808-1870] By the start of the Second Boer War in 1899 a long period of relative peace had existed; the station became the main base for British Forces disembarking and embarking during the war and for supplies and equipment being shipped from Britain for the duration of the conflict.{{cite web|url=http://www.qdg.org.uk/pages/1899-to-1902-117.php|title=South Africa 1899 - 1902|publisher=1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards|access-date=26 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927025904/http://www.qdg.org.uk/pages/1899-to-1902-117.php|archive-date=27 September 2013|url-status=dead}}

In 1910 a new East Dock was built together with a dry dock facility which proved timely in the event of the breakout of the First World War. From 1914 to 1919 its primary tasks was to seek out and destroy German commerce raiders.{{cite book|last1=Friedman|first1=Norman|title=British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After|date=2011|publisher=Seaforth Publishing|isbn=9781848320789|pages=76–79|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kzs5CwAAQBAJ&q=the+cape+of+good+hope+station+world+war+one++german+commerce+raiders&pg=PA78|language=en}} HMS Pegasus remained as part of the Cape Station on the outbreak of the First World War. As the likelihood of war with Germany increased, the Commander-in-Chief on the Cape Station, Rear Admiral Herbert King-Hall, deployed his ships in order to counter the threat posed by the German light cruiser {{ship|SMS|Königsberg|1905|2}}, based at Dar es Salaam. On 31 July 1914, Pegasus sighted Königsberg leaving Dar es Salaam, but was unable to keep track of the faster German cruiser.{{Harvnb|Corbett|1920|p=152}}{{Harvnb|Naval Staff Monograph No. 10|1921|pp=17–20}} King-Hall recognised that Königsberg outclassed Pegasus and intended that Pegasus should operate with the cruiser {{HMS|Astraea|1893|2}} while his flagship {{HMS|Hyacinth|1898|2}} operated independently to protect the trade routes around the Cape, but on 12 August, the Admiralty ordered Astraea to join Hyacinth off the Cape to escort troop convoys, leaving Pegasus unsupported at Zanzibar.{{Harvnb|Naval Staff Monograph No. 10|1921|pp=21–25}} On 23 August Pegasus sailed to the port of Bagamoyo in German East Africa with the intention of forcing a truce so that the port would take no further part in the war. Similar agreements had previously been made with the authorities of Dar es Salaam and Tanga. When the port authorities refused to agree to such a truce, Pegasus shelled the port's Customs House.{{Harvnb|Naval Staff Monograph No. 10|1921|pp=22, 28–29}}

During the interwar period the Cape Station resumed the work of maintaining and refitting vessels stationed there and those travelling en route to Asia. In 1939, at the start of the Second World War, the base played an early prominent role in the Battle of the Atlantic, and the hunt for the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, that led to the Battle of the River Plate. After the conclusion of that engagement the station ceased as a command operations center with the senior naval staff moving to the newly formed South Atlantic station headquartered at Freetown. The naval base remained as part of that command until 1957.{{cite web|last1=Wilson|first1=Alastair|title="Mrs Bathurst" Notes on the text|url=http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_bathurst_notes.htm|website=kiplingsociety.co.uk|date=11 May 2021 |publisher=The Kipling Society, Page 339, line 2, April 29, 2008}} In 1958 the British government handed over the facility to the South African Navy.{{cite web|url=http://www.hms-ceylon.co.uk/1956-to-1958/|title=1956 to 1958|publisher=HMS Ceylon Association|access-date=26 November 2016}}

The commanders-in-chief were:{{cite web |last1=Hiscocks |first1=Richard |title=Cape Commander-in-Chief 1795-1852 |url=http://morethannelson.com/commander-chief-cape/ |website=morethannelson.com |publisher=morethannelson.com |access-date=19 November 2016 |date=2016-01-17}}

{{x mark-n}} = died in post

• Vice-Admiral Sir George Elphinstone (1795–1796){{cite book |last1=Barnard |first1=Lady Anne Lindsay |last2=Cordeur |first2=Basil Le |title=The Cape Diaries of Lady Anne Barnard, 1799-1800: 1799 |date=1999 |publisher=Van Riebeeck Society, The |location=Cape Town |isbn=9780958411257 |page=27 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuO1G1K1htMC&q=Commander+in+chief+cape+station&pg=PR27 |language=en}}
• Rear-Admiral Thomas Pringle (1797–1798)
• Rear-Admiral Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian (1798){{cite web |title=Christian, Sir Hugh Cloberry, Rear Admiral, 1747-1798 Biographical Details |url=http://collections.rmg.co.uk/archive/objects/472477.html |publisher=Royal Museums Greenwich, 1798-02-26 - 1798-11-04 |access-date=19 November 2016}} {{x mark-n}}
• Vice-Admiral Sir Roger Curtis (1800–1803)

Note: from 1803 to 1806 a Dutch colony

• Commodore Sir Home Riggs Popham (1806–1807)
• Rear-Admiral Charles Stirling (1807–1808)
• Commodore Josias Rowley (1808)
• Vice-Admiral Sir Albemarle Bertie (1808–1810){{cite book |title=The annual biography and obituary for the year 1825 |chapter=Bertie, Admiral Sir Albemarle |year=1825 |location=London |publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green |volume=9 |page=396 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B9wKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA396}}
• Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford (1810–1812)
• Rear-Admiral Charles Tyler (1812–1815){{cite book |last1=Clarke |first1=James Stanier |last2=McArthur |first2=John |title=The Naval Chronicle: Volume 28, July-December 1812: Containing a General and Biographical History of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom with a Variety of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects |date=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781108018678 |page=260 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWbjxv5O6ocC&q=Rear-Admiral+Charles+Tyler+Cape+of+Good+Hope+Station&pg=PA260 |language=en}}
• Rear-Admiral George Cockburn (1815–1816){{cite book |title=Napoleon & Betsy: Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon on St Helena |date=2016 |publisher=Fonthill Media |isbn=9781781551356 |page=80 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PpuTki5tauIC&q=Cape+of+Good+Hope+Station+Royal+Navy&pg=PA80 |language=en}}
• Rear-Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm (1816–1817)
• Rear-Admiral Robert Plampin (1817–1820){{cite book |last1=Great Britain H.M. Stationery Office |first1=House of Commons |last2=State Library |first2=Bavarian |title=Journals of the House of Commons, Digitized 23 Jun 2010 |date=1 January 1821 |volume=76 |page=794 |publisher=H.M. Stationery Office |language=en}}
• Rear-Admiral Robert Lambert (1820–1821)
• Commodore James Lillicrap (1821–1822)
• Commodore Joseph Nourse (1822–1824) {{x mark-n}}
• Commodore Robert Moorsom (1825)
• Commodore Hood Hanway Christian (1825–1827) {{sfn|Marshall|1827|p=119}}
• Commodore William Skipsey (1827–1828)
• Commodore Charles Marsh Schomberg (1828–1831){{cite web |last1=Colbourn |first1=H. |title=The United Service Magazine, 1830 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nUvzAAAAMAAJ&q=Commodore+Charles+Schomberg+Cape+of+Good+Hope+Station&pg=PA251 |publisher=p. 249, The University of Wisconsin - Madison Digitized, 12 April 2010 |access-date=19 November 2016 |year=1830}}
• Rear-Admiral Frederick Warren (1831–1834){{cite book |last1=Bethell |first1=Leslie |title=The Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade: Britain, Brazil and the Slave Trade Question |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=9780521101134 |page=122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2LsNTUPI_6sC&q=Commander+in+chief+cape+station&pg=PA122 |language=en}}
• Rear-Admiral Sir Patrick Campbell (1834–1837)
• Rear-Admiral George Elliot (1837–1840)
• Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Durnford King (1840–1841){{cite book |title=The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle for 1840 |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York |isbn=9781108053921 |page=459 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WX3Yztn6PYUC&q=Rear-Admiral+Sir+Edward+Durnford+King+Cape+of+Good+Hope+Station&pg=PA459 |language=en}}
• Rear-Admiral Josceline Percy (1841–1846){{cite web |title=Colonial Magazine and Commercial Maritime Journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOlBAQAAMAAJ&q=Rear-Admiral+Hon.+Josceline+Percy+Cape+of+Good+Hope+Station&pg=PA253 |publisher=Fisher, son. p. 253, digitized by the University of Minnesota, 18 June 2014 |access-date=19 November 2016 |language=en |date=1 January 1844}}
• Rear-Admiral James Dacres (1846–1848){{cite web |title=The New Commander for the Cape |url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/31747138 |website=nla.gov.au |publisher=Morning Chronicle, 10 Jan 1846 |access-date=19 November 2016}}
• Rear-Admiral Barrington Reynolds (1848–1849)
• Commodore Christopher Wyvill (1849–1853)
• Commodore Charles Talbot (1853–1854)
• Commodore John Adams (1854–1857)

• Rear Admiral Sir Frederick Grey (1857–1860)
• Rear Admiral Sir Henry Keppel (1860)
• Rear Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker (1861–1865)

• Commodore Frederick Montresor (1865)
• Commodore Charles Hillyar (1865–1867)

• Commodore Sir William Dowell (1867–1871)
• Commodore Sir John Commerell (1871–1873)
• Commodore Sir William Hewett (1873–1876)
• Commodore Sir Francis Sullivan (1876–1879)
• Commodore Sir Frederick Richards (1879–1882)
• Rear Admiral Sir Nowell Salmon (1882–1885)
• Rear Admiral Sir Walter Hunt-Grubbe (1885–1888)
• Rear Admiral Sir Richard Wells (1888–1890)
• Rear Admiral Sir Henry Nicholson (1890–1892)
• Rear Admiral Sir Frederick Bedford (1892–1895)
• Rear Admiral Sir Harry Rawson (1895–1898)
• Rear Admiral Sir Robert Harris (1898–1900)
• Rear Admiral Sir Arthur Moore (1901–1903)
• Rear Admiral Sir John Durnford (1904–1907)
• Rear Admiral Sir Edmund Poë (1907–1908)
• Rear Admiral Sir George Egerton (1908–1910)
• Rear Admiral Sir Paul Bush (1910–1913)
• Vice Admiral Sir Herbert King-Hall (1913–1916)
• Vice Admiral Sir Edward Charlton (1916–1918)
• Vice Admiral Sir Edward Fitzherbert (1918–1920)

• Vice Admiral Sir William Goodenough (1920–1922)
• Vice Admiral Sir Rudolph Bentinck (1922–1924)
• Vice Admiral Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice (1924–1926) {{x mark-n}}
• Vice Admiral Sir David Anderson (1926–1929)
• Vice Admiral Sir Rudolf Burmester (1929–1931)
• Vice Admiral Sir Hugh Tweedie (1931–1933)
• Vice Admiral Sir Edward Evans (1933–1935)
• Vice Admiral Sir Francis Tottenham (1935–1938)
• Vice Admiral Sir George Lyon (31 January 1938 – 1939), who then became Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic, 1939 to 7 September 1940.{{Cite web |title=George Hamilton D'Oyly Lyon - The Dreadnought Project |url=http://dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs/index.php/George_Hamilton_D'Oyly_Lyon |access-date=2024-09-01 |website=dreadnoughtproject.org}}

• List of fleets and major commands of the Royal Navy

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Corbett |first=Julian S. |title=Naval Operations: Volume 1: To the Battle of the Falklands December 1914 |series=History of the Great War |year=1920 |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co. |location=London}}
• {{cite book |last=Marshall|first=John

|title=Royal Naval Biography Supplement: Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-Officers, Superannuated Rear-Admirals, Retired-Captains, Post-Captains, and Commanders

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RU9bxvKJQOEC&pg=PA119|access-date=2016-11-19|year=1827|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-02272-9}}

• Rodger, N.A.M. The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815. New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2004.
• {{cite book |title=Monograph No. 10.—East Africa to July 1915|series=Naval Staff Monographs (Historical) |volume=II |year=1921 |publisher=The Naval Staff, Training and Staff Duties Division |url=http://www.navy.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/Naval-Staff-Monographs-Vol.II_opt.pdf |ref={{Harvid|Naval Staff Monograph No. 10|1921}} }}

• Miller, Nathan. Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815 . New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2000.

{{Admiralty Department|state=collapsed}}

{{Royal Navy fleets}}

Category:Commanders-in-chief of the Royal Navy

Category:Military units and formations established in 1857

Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1939

Category:1857 establishments in the British Empire