Victualling Department (Royal Navy)

Last updated
Victualling Department
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg
Agency overview
Formed1832
Preceding agency
Dissolved1964
Superseding agency
Jurisdiction Government of the United Kingdom
Headquarters Admiralty
London
Agency executives
  • Director of Victualling
  • Deputy Director of Victualling
  • Assistant Director of Victualling
Parent department Admiralty

The Victualling Department originally known as the Department of the Comptroller of Victualling and Transport Services or the Victualling Office, [1] also known as the Department of the Director of Victualling was the British Admiralty department responsible for civil administration of Victualling Yards and the storing and supply of Naval Victuals for the Royal Navy from 1832 to 1964.

Contents

History

The provision of Victualling to the Royal Navy was originally done using specialist food and beverage subcontractors, [2] [3] it became the responsibility of the Surveyor-General of Victuals, who was a principal officer of the Navy Board from 1550 to 1679. In 1683, he was post replaced by a Board of Victualling Commissioners that was subordinate yet autonomous to the Navy Board. [4] The Victualling Board took over a number of functions, including medical services, from the Transport Board when it was abolished in 1817. When the Victualling Board itself was also discharged from its duties in the Admiralty reforms of 1832, victualling became the responsibility of the Board of Admiralty under a new Comptroller of Victualling and Transport Services, [5] under the superintendence of the Fourth Naval Lord. In 1862 the provision transport services passed to a newly created Transport Department and in 1869 the office of Comptroller of Victualling and his department was ended. Its former role was then divided between a new Contract and Purchase Department, that would managed by the Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty, their department became responsible for purchasing, following this re-organisation process a Superintendent of Victualling was created in 1870 until 1878 when it was renamed the Director of Victualling his department managed the store-keeping and supply functions of Navy Victuals for the Royal Navy. In 1961 the department was amalgamated within the Naval Stores Department but remained autonomous until 1964. [6] Victualling continued within the new Navy Department, Ministry of Defence that was created following the merger of the Department of Admiralty in April 1964 into an enlarged ministry.

Administration

Post Holders included: [7] [8] [9] [10]

Comptrollers of Victualling and Transport Services

Comptroller of Victualling

Superintendents of Victualling and Stores

Directors of Victualling

Structure of Department

As of Spring 1962
Victualling Yards operating from 1860 onward during the existence of this department the number of yards were reduced and included. [11]

Note:Each yard's victualling supplies were managed by either an Agent Victualler, Master Attendant Victualling, Victualling Contractor or Victualling Stores Officer.

Timeline

Included [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navy Board</span> Organisation of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832

The Navy Board was the commission responsible for the day-to-day civil administration of the Royal Navy between 1546 and 1832. The board was headquartered within the Navy Office.

The Minister of Shipping was a British government post created in the First World War and again in the Second World War. In 1941 it was merged into the position of Minister of Transport which was then renamed Minister of War Transport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax</span>

Royal Naval Dockyard, Halifax was a Royal Navy base in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Established in 1759, the Halifax Yard served as the headquarters for the Royal Navy's North American Station for sixty years, starting with the Seven Years' War. The Royal Navy continued to operate the station until it was closed in 1905. The station was sold to Canada in 1907 becoming Her Majesty's Canadian Dockyard, a function it still serves today as part of CFB Halifax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sick and Hurt Commissioners</span>

The Sick and Hurt Commissioners were responsible for medical services in the Royal Navy. They were a separate body to the Navy Board, supplying surgeons to naval ships, providing them with medicines and equipment, and running shore and ship hospitals; they were also responsible for prisoners of war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victualling Commissioners</span> Division of the British Royal Navy

The Commissioners for the Victualling of the Navy, often called the Victualling Commissioners or Victualling Board, was the body responsible under the Navy Board for victualling ships of the British Royal Navy. It oversaw the vast operation of providing naval personnel with enough food, drink and supplies to keep them fighting fit, sometimes for months at a time, in whatever part of the globe they might be stationed. It existed from 1683 until 1832 when its function was first replaced by the Department of the Comptroller of Victualling and Transport Services until 1869 then that office was also abolished and replaced by the Victualling Department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transport Board (Royal Navy)</span>

The Transport Board was the British Royal Navy organisation responsible for the transport of supplies and military. It is also referred to as the Board of Transport and Transport Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Admiralty in the 17th century</span>

During the early 17th century, England's relative naval power deteriorated; in the course of the rest of the 17th century, the office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs steered the Navy's transition from a semi-amateur Navy Royal fighting in conjunction with private vessels into a fully professional institution, a Royal Navy. Its financial provisions were gradually regularised, it came to rely on dedicated warships only, and it developed a professional officer corps with a defined career structure, superseding an earlier mix of sailors and socially prominent former soldiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Admiralty in the 18th century</span>

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 rearranged the political map of Europe, and led to a series of wars with France that lasted well over a century. This was the classic age of sail; while the ships themselves evolved in only minor ways, technique and tactics were honed to a high degree, and the battles of the Napoleonic Wars entailed feats that would have been impossible for the fleets of the 17th century. Because of parliamentary opposition, James II fled the country. The landing of William III and the Glorious Revolution itself was a gigantic effort involving 100 warships and 400 transports carrying 11,000 infantry and 4,000 horses. It was not opposed by the English or Scottish fleets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of the Accountant-General of the Navy</span>

The Department of the Accountant-General of the Navy also known as Accountant-General's Department was the department charged by the British Government with reviewing all naval estimates, conducting naval audits and processing payments from 1829 to 1932.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deputy Comptroller of the Navy (Navy Board)</span>

The Deputy Comptroller of the Navy was a principal member of the Navy Board of the Royal Navy who was responsible for chairing the Committee of Correspondence and managing all internal and external communications of the Navy Board from 1793 to 1816 and then again from 1829 to 1832. He was based at the Navy Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surveyor of Buildings (Royal Navy)</span>

The Surveyor of Buildings also known as the Department of the Surveyor of Buildings was the civil officer initially a member of the Navy Board then later the Board of Admiralty responsible for superintending, maintaining and improving the British Royal Navy Dockyards, Naval Buildings, and Architectural Works of the Admiralty from 1812 to 1837.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naval Stores Department (Royal Navy)</span>

The Naval Stores Department also known as the Department of the Director of Naval Stores was initially a subsidiary department of the British Department of Admiralty, then later the Navy Department responsible for managing and maintaining naval stores and the issuing of materials at naval dockyards and establishments for the building, fitting and repairing of Royal Navy warships from 1869 to 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of the Director of Dockyards</span> British Admiralty department

The Department of the Director of Dockyards, also known as the Dockyard Branch and later as the Dockyards and Fleet Maintenance Department, was the British Admiralty department responsible from 1872 to 1964 for civil administration of dockyards, the building of ships, the maintenance and repair of ships at dockyards and factories, and the supervision of all civil dockyard personnel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Admiral of the South</span> Former English Navy appointment

The Admiral of the South also known as Admiral of the Southern Fleet was a senior English Navy appointment. The post holder was chiefly responsible for the command of the navy's fleet that operated in the English Channel out of Portsmouth from 1294 to 1326.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Navy Office (Royal Navy)</span> British government office, 1576–1832

The Navy Office was the government office responsible for the civil administration of the British Royal Navy from 1576 to 1832. It contained all the members of the Navy Board and various other departments and offices. The day-to-day business of the Navy Office was headed by the Clerk of the Acts from 1660 until 1796. When this position was abolished duties were assumed by separate committees for Accounts, Correspondence, Stores, Transports and Victualling presided over by the Comptroller of the Navy. The Navy Office was one of two government offices that were jointly responsible for directing naval affairs. In 1832 following reforms of the naval service the Navy Office was abolished and its functions and staff taken over by the Admiralty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Training Squadron (Royal Navy)</span> Formation of naval ships

The Training Squadron was a formation of sailing ships employed for use of naval training from 1885 to 1899.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architectural and Engineering Works Department</span>

The Architectural and Engineering Works Department was the main civil engineering department of the British Royal Navy responsible constructing, and maintaining naval buildings, dockyards, ports and managing civil engineering staff from 1837 to 1919 it was superseded by the Civil Engineer in Chief's Department.

Jamaica Dockyard also known as Port Royal Dockyard was a British Royal Navy Dockyard located at Port Royal, Jamaica. It was established 1675 and closed in 1905. The dockyard was initially administered by the Navy Board then later the Board of Admiralty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sea Transport Branch (Board of Trade)</span>

The Sea Transport Branch of the British Board of Trade, originally established as the Transport Department or Naval Transport Department, was a logistical branch of the Department of Admiralty responsible for the provision of naval transportation services. It underwent numerous name changes throughout its complicated history with responsibility for sea transportation, known as the Department of the Director of Transports from 1890.

Kinsale Dockyard was a British Royal Navy base located at Kinsale, Ireland from c. 1647 to 1812.

References

  1. Tanner, J. R. (2013). Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN   9781107626430.
  2. Macpherson, David (1805). Annals of Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries, and Navigation with Brief Notices of the Arts and Sciences Connected with Them: Containing the Commercial Transactions of the British Empire and Other Countries : with a Large Appendix ; in Four Volumes. London, England: Nichols and Son. p. 318.
  3. Knight, Roger; Wilcox, Martin Howard (2010). Sustaining the Fleet, 1793-1815: War, the British Navy and the Contractor State. Boydell & Brewer. p. 1919. ISBN   9781843835646.
  4. "Victualling Board - Oxford Reference". oxfordreference.com. Oxford University, England, 2007. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  5. Archives, The National. "Navy Board, Victualling Office, and Admiralty, Department of the Comptroller of the Victualling and Transport Services: In-Letters". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. National Archives, 1793-1849, ADM 109. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  6. Archives, The National. "Records of Victualling Departments". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. National Archives, 1660-1975, ADM. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  7. Clowes, W. Laird (William Laird); Markham, Clements R. (Clements Robert) (1897). "The Royal Navy : a history from the earliest times to the present, Vol 5, 1802-1815". archive.org. p, 4 London : Sampson Low, Marston. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
  8. Admiralty, Great Britain (1834). The Navy List. H.M. Stationery Office.
  9. Clowes, W. Laird (William Laird); Markham, Clements R. (Clements Robert) (1897). The Royal Navy : a history from the earliest times to the present, Vol 6, 1815-1857. London : Sampson Low, Marston. p.  186.
  10. Clowes, W. Laird (William Laird); Markham, Clements R. (Clements Robert) (1897). The Royal Navy : a history from the earliest times to the present, Vol 7, 1865-1900. London, England: London : Sampson Low, Marston. p.  3.
  11. The Navy Lists. London, England: H.M. Stationery Office. 1832–1970.
  12. Archives, The National. "Records of Victualling Departments". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. National Archives, 1660-1975, ADM. Retrieved 21 December 2017.

Sources