Third Fleet (United Kingdom)

Last updated February 11, 2025

Third Fleet
White Ensign
Active	1 May 1912–1914
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Type	Reserve fleet
Size	2 x Battle squadrons 6 x Cruiser squadrons 3 x Local Defence Flotilla

The Third Fleet was a reserve formation of the Royal Navy that briefly existed before the First World War.

History
Vice-Admiral Commanding
Components
Footnotes
Bibliography
External links

History

Formed on 1 May 1912 from the 4th Division of the Home Fleet, its elderly ships were ordinarily only manned by a small maintenance crew during peacetime, but were intended to be manned by naval reservists when mobilised.^[1] It was conducting a test mobilisation in July 1914 as tensions increased between Great Britain and Imperial Germany ^[2] and was only partially demobilised before full mobilisation was ordered on 2 August. At this time it consisted of the 7th and 8th Battle Squadrons of pre-dreadnought battleships and five squadrons of cruisers.^[3]

Vice-Admiral Commanding

	Rank	Name	Term
Vice-Admiral Commanding Third Fleet^[4]
1	Vice-Admiral	Sir Frederick T. Hamilton	December 1911-December 1913
2	Vice-Admiral	Sir Cecil Burney	December 1913-August 1914.

Components

Included^[5]

	Unit	Notes
1	7th Battle Squadron	(8 pre-dreadnoughts)^[6]
2	8th Battle Squadron	(6 pre-dreadnoughts)^[7]
3	7th Cruiser Squadron	(5 armoured cruisers)^[8]
3	8th Cruiser Squadron	(5 armoured/protected cruisers)^[9]
4	9th Cruiser Squadron	(8 armoured/protected cruisers)^[10]
5	10th Cruiser Squadron	(7 protected cruisers)-from Training Squadron at Queenstown^[11]
6	11th Cruiser Squadron	(5 protected cruisers)^[12]
7	12th Cruiser Squadron	(4 protected cruisers)^[13]
8	Devonport Local Defence Flotilla ^[14]
9	Nore Local Defence Flotilla ^[15]
10	Portsmouth Local Defence Flotilla ^[16]

Footnotes

↑ Wragg, p. 24
↑ Marder, p. 432
↑ Corbett, pp. 13, 29
↑ Government, H.M. (October 1913). "Flag Officers – Vice Admirals". The Navy List. H.M. Stationery Office. p. 87.
↑ Watson, Graham. "Royal Navy Organisation and Ship Deployment, Inter-War Years 1914-1918". naval-history.net. Gordon Smith, 27 October 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2017.
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015
↑ Watson. 2015

Bibliography

Corbett, Julian. Naval Operations to the Battle of the Falklands. History of the Great War: Based on Official Documents. Vol. I (2nd, reprint of the 1938 ed.). London and Nashville, Tennessee: Imperial War Museum and Battery Press. ISBN 0-89839-256-X.
Marder, Arthur J. (2013) [1961]. From Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era. Vol. I: The Road to War 1904–1914. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781-59114-259-1.
Wragg, David (2006). Royal Navy Handbook 1914–1918. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-4203-7.

External links

The Dreadnought Project: Third Fleet

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