The Commander-in-Chief, North American Station commanded the North America and West Indies Station of the Royal Navy.
The North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from 1745 to 1956. The North American Station was separate from the Jamaica Station until 1830 when the two combined to form the North America and West Indies Station. It was briefly abolished in 1907 before being restored in 1915. It was renamed the America and West Indies Station in 1926. It was commanded by the Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station and subsequently by the Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station.
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against the Kingdom of France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is known as the Senior Service.
Commanders of the station have included: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Admiral Sir James Douglas, 1st Baronet was a Scottish naval officer and Commodore of Newfoundland.
Vice Admiral Charles Watson was an officer of the Royal Navy, who served briefly as colonial governor of Newfoundland, and died at Calcutta, India.
Admiral Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, PC was a Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1755 to 1782. He saw action in command of various ships, including the fourth-rate Maidstone, during the War of the Austrian Succession. He went on to serve as Commodore on the North American Station and then Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station during the Seven Years' War. After that he served as Senior Naval Lord and then Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet.
Vice-Admiral Sir William Charles Fahie KCB was a prominent British Royal Navy officer during the American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. Unusually, Fahie's service was almost entirely spent in the West Indies, where he had been born and where he lived during the time he was in reserve and in his retirement. After extensive service in the Caribbean during the American War of Independence, during which Fahie impressed with his local knowledge, Fahie was in reserve between 1783 and 1793, returning to service to participate in Sir John Jervis' campaign against the French West Indian islands in 1794.
Admiral Sir Willoughby Thomas Lake KCB was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, North American Station.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Ogle, 2nd Baronet was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer, he saw action leading storming parties at the capture of Martinique and at the capture of Guadeloupe during the French Revolutionary Wars. He also took part in the landings in Egypt in the later stages of the French Revolutionary Wars.
Sir Christopher "Kit" George Francis Maurice Cradock was a British Rear-Admiral of the Royal Navy. He earned a reputation for great gallantry. Appointed to the royal yacht, he was close to the British royal family. Prior to the First World War, his combat service during the Mahdist War and the Boxer Rebellion was all ashore. Appointed Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station before the war, his mission was to protect Allied merchant shipping by hunting down German commerce raiders. Late in 1914 he was tasked to search for and destroy the East Asia Squadron of the Imperial German Navy as it headed home around the tip of South America. Believing that he had no choice but to engage the squadron in accordance with his orders, despite his numerical and tactical inferiority, he was killed during the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile in November when the German ships sank his flagship.
Admiral Robert Stewart Phipps Hornby, CMG was a Royal Navy officer who briefly served as Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station in 1915.
Admiral Sir George Edwin Patey was a senior officer in the Royal Navy.
Admiral Sir Walter Henry Cowan, 1st Baronet,, known as Tich Cowan, was a British Royal Navy admiral who saw service in both World War I and World War II; in the latter he was one of the oldest British servicemen on active duty.
Admiral Sir Cyril Thomas Moulden Fuller was a senior Royal Navy officer who went on to be Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel.
Admiral Sir Vernon Harry Stuart Haggard, KCB, CMG was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station. His career in the Royal Navy spanned forty-four years, from his entry as a youth in 1888 to his promotion to admiral in 1932.
Of note:In 1942 the name of the station was changed to Western Atlantic until 1945 accordingly the title of C-in-C America and West Indies was re-styled Senior British Naval Officer, Western Atlantic. [7] [8] [9]
Of note after the end of world war two the former name of the station is restored. [10]
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