British Flag Officers in the French Wars, 1793-1815: Admirals' Lives
John Morrow
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic (August 22, 2019)
ISBN-13: 9781350127777

During the French wars (1793-1801, 1803-1815) the system of promotion to flag rank in the Royal Navy produced a cadre of admirals numbering more than two hundred at its peak. These officers competed vigorously for a limited number of appointments at sea and for the high honours and significant financial rewards open to successful naval commanders. When on active service admirals faced formidable challenges arising from the Navy's critical role in a global conflict, from the extraordinary scope of their responsibilities, and from intense political, public and professional expectations. While a great deal has been written about admirals' roles in naval operations, other aspects of their professional lives have not been explored systematically.

British Flag Officers in the French Wars, 1793-1815 considers the professional lives of well-known and more obscure admirals, vice-admirals and rear-admirals. It examines the demands of naval command, flag officers' understanding of their authority and their approach to exercising it, their ambitions and failures, their professional interactions, and their lives afloat and onshore. In exploring these themes, it draws on a wide range of correspondence and other primary source material.

By taking a broad thematic approach, this book provides a multi-faceted account of admirals' professional lives that extends beyond the insights that are found in biographical studies of individual flag officers. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of British naval history.

Reviews

“[A] rich portrait of the professional and personal lives of flag officers and their multifaceted relations with the ever more demanding bureaucratic structure that was the Admiralty … John Morrow's welcome new, comprehensive, thoroughly researched tour d'horizon of the senior ranks of one of history's most successful naval organizations at the peak of its success and fame will make instructive and engaging reading for its target audiences.”” ―Michigan War Studies Review

“[A] very good example of source-intensive historical work, with abundant footnotes, a thorough secondary bibliography, and original material from seventeen different archives … Students can use it as a helpful overview, but the fluid, elegant writing will also appeal to the curious general reader.” ―History: Reviews of New Books

“The length of time, scale and geographical scope of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars at sea had an unprecedented impact on British society and future generations' understanding of the Royal Navy. The performance and public personae of the flag officers as individuals and as a group were highlighted as never before. Morrow has done a first-rate job in taking us behind the events on the high seas to the factors that motivated or influenced the development and fortunes of this remarkable body of officers.” ―Richard Harding, Professor of History, University of Westminster, UK

About the Author

John Morrow is Professor of Political Studies and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has been a Bye Fellow at Robinson College, Cambridge, a visiting lecturer in the History Faculty at the University of Cambridge, and a visiting fellow at both the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.