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HMS Excellent (shore establishment)

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HMS Excellent (shore establishment)map
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Excellent.

HMS Excellent is a Royal Navy "stone frigate" (shore establishment) sited on Whale Island near Portsmouth in Hampshire. HMS Excellent is itself part of the Maritime Warfare School, with a headquarters at HMS Collingwood, although a number of lodger units are resident within the site including the offices of the First Sea Lord.[1]

Quick Facts Excellent, Site information ...
HMS Excellent
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Whale Island, Portsmouth, Hampshire in England
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An aerial photo of HMS Excellent during 2005. The red building is Navy Command Headquarters
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Site information
TypeNaval shore establishment
OwnerMinistry of Defence
Operator Royal Navy
ConditionOperational
WebsiteOfficial website
Location
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HMS Excellent
Location in Hampshire
Coordinates50°49′09″N 1°05′48.5″W
Area32 hectares (79 acres)
Site history
Built1885 (1885) – 1891
In use1891–present
Garrison information
Current
commander		Commander Simon Turnbull
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History

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Perspective

RN Gunnery School afloat

Whaley (later Whale) Island in 1833

In the 1829 a Commander George Smith advocated the establishment of a Naval School of Gunnery; accordingly, the following year, the third-rate HMS Excellent was converted into a training ship and moored just north of Portsmouth Dockyard, opposite Fareham Creek.[2] Smith was given oversight and set up Excellent not only as a training establishment but also as a platform for experimental firing of new weapons (the creek was used as a firing range). In 1832 Smith was replaced in command by Captain Thomas Hastings, under whom the school grew both numerically and in reputation, as trained gunners began to prove their effectiveness in combat situations. In 1834 the original Excellent was replaced by the second rate HMS Boyne which was duly renamed Excellent.[3]

In 1845 Captain Henry Ducie Chads took over command of Excellent in succession to Hastings. He remained in post until 1854, by which time the Admiralty had purchased 'Whaley Island' (which at the time was little more than a sandbank). Chads was succeeded first by Captain Thomas Maitland and then, in 1857, by Richard Hewlett. In December 1859 the first-rate Queen Charlotte took over the role of gunnery training ship and was likewise renamed Excellent.[4]

In 1863 Hewlett was replaced by Captain Astley Cooper Key, who was in turn succeeded by Captain Arthur Hood some three years later. By this time, a rifle range had been established on the island for the use of HMS Excellent and the first building appeared there, the land having been somewhat drained and levelled. Under Hood's leadership a torpedo section was set up within the school; overseen by Commander Jacky Fisher (who would later return to Excellent as commanding officer), this was made a separate establishment, as HMS Vernon, in 1876.[5]

RN Gunnery School ashore

It was under Fisher's command, in the 1880s, that approval was given to move the gunnery school ashore, on to Whale Island. The initial proposal had come from a Lieutenant Percy Scott, who (having arrived to train as a gunnery lieutenant in 1878) initially used the island as a running track. The island had grown significantly in size since the 1850s: indeed, up until the early 1890s excavated spoil from the expansion of the Dockyard was routinely conveyed there, using convict labour, to build the island up. Scott returned to Excellent as an instructor in 1883 and took the opportunity to submit a detailed proposal to Fisher which was accepted. (Later in his career Scott was again posted to HMS Excellent on two occasions, returning first as Commander in 1890 and then as Captain of the establishment in the early 1900s.)[6]

HMS Excellent: the Quarterdeck Block (originally containing a gymnasium, lecture theatre, warrant officers' mess, church rooms and the Church of St Barbara).

The first buildings of the shore establishment were begun in 1885, including what is now known as the Quarterdeck Block.[7] Building work then continued alongside the tasks of draining and levelling the land (the site was known colloquially as 'Mud Island').[8] By 1891 the whole operation had moved ashore and the old ship was paid off. Centred on a large open drill ground, the site includes the officers' mess in a range to the north with rows of barracks blocks for ratings (demolished and rebuilt c. 2010) arrayed behind. To the west, opposite the Quarterdeck, were long gun battery sheds; the long low drill shed to the south is a listed building (1892).[9] Firing training took place on the batteries and all different varieties of guns were kept on site for instruction on their maintenance and operation. During the 2 February 1901 funeral of Queen Victoria sailors from HMS Excellent provided an honour guard. When the horses of the Royal Artillery intended to pull the gun carriage that bore her coffin from Windsor railway station became unmanageable, the sailors took their place, for which King Edward VII conferred the Victoria medal upon them on 16 March 1901 at Portsmouth, at the commencement of a world tour by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York.[10] The Anti-Aircraft Experimental Section of the Munitions Inventions Department was based here from September 1916,[11] under Archibald Hill.[12] Later, full-sized dummy gun turrets were provided for training purposes. Seagoing training also took place up until 1957 on a series of battleships, cruisers and destroyers that were attached to the facility. From the late 1950s guided missile training was also provided.[8]

Whale Island in 1945

The Portsmouth Field Gun Crew, competing in the Royal Navy field gun competition at the Royal Tournament, used to be based at the site.[13] A small museum in the Quarterdeck block preserves artefacts from Excellent's days as a gunnery school; among them is the Royal Navy State Funeral Gun Carriage which is drawn by naval ratings at state funerals of monarchs and other distinguished UK citizens.[14]

Decommissioning and recommissioning

The Royal Navy's Fire Fighting Training Unit has been based at the northern tip of Whale Island since the 1990s.

The gunnery school closed in 1985 whereupon HMS Excellent was decommissioned. The site then became part of HMS Nelson.[13]

The establishment was recommissioned as HMS Excellent in 1994 following the closure of the old HMS Phoenix in nearby Tipner and Horsea Island, and the relocation of the school of Fire Fighting and Damage Control from there to Whale Island.[13]

Captains of HMS Excellent

The following list goes as far as 1984. It shows the date of appointment, and rank and decorations held at the time. In some cases a captain held several sequential appointments. It does not show captains held on the books of the Excellent who were not commanding officers of Excellent.

More information Name, Date of appointment ...
List of captains[15]
Name Date of appointment Sources
Commander George Smith 19 June 1830 [note 1]
Captain Sir Thomas Hastings 13 April 1832 [16][17]
Captain Sir Thomas Hastings, Kt 2 December 1834 [18]
Captain Sir Thomas Hastings, Kt 3 June 1842 [19][20]
Captain Henry D. Chads 28 August 1845 [21]
Captain Henry Ducie Chads, KB 1 July 1847 [22]
Captain Henry Ducie Chads, KB 1 July 1851 [23]
Captain Sir Thomas Maitland, KB 17 January 1854 [24]
Captain Richard S. Hewlett, CB 29 June 1857 [25]
Captain Richard S. Hewlett, CB 31 December 1859 [26]
Captain Astley C. Key, CB 30 June 1863 [27]
Captain Astley Cooper Key, CB 1 January 1866 [28]
Captain Arthur W.A. Hood 3 September 1866 [29]
Captain Henry Boys 13 July 1869 [30]
Captain Thomas Brandreth 18 May 1874 [31][32][33]
Captain Frederick A. Herbert 1 January 1877 [34]
Captain John O. Hopkins 4 March 1880 [35]
Captain William Codrington, CB, AdC 21 June 1881 [36]
Captain John A. Fisher, CB 6 April 1883 [37]
Captain Compton E. Domvile, AdC 1 November 1886 [38]
Captain Hugo L. Pearson, ADC 12 June 1890 [39]
Captain Lewis A. Beaumont 12 June 1893 [40]
Captain Archibald L. Douglas 3 July 1894 [41]
Captain Edmund F. Jeffreys 9 November 1895 [42]
Captain William H. May, MVO 10 August 1897 [43]
Captain Arthur Barrow, AdC 21 November 1900 [44]
Captain Percy M. Scott, CVO, CS, LL.D, AdC 1 April 1903 [45]
Captain Frederick T. Hamilton, MVO, AdC 6 March 1905 [46]
Captain Reginald G.O. Tupper, AdC. 15 July 1907 [47]
Captain Frederick C.T. Tudor, AdC. 18 August 1910 [48]
Captain Morgan Singer, AdC. 1 June 1912 [49]
Captain Cole C. Fowler 19 August 1914 [50]
Captain H. Ralf Crooke 23 May 1917 [51]
Captain Robert N. Bax CB 13 June 1918 [52]
Captain Francis H. Mitchell DSO 13 June 1920 [53]
Captain Arthur J. Davies 18 August 1922 [54]
Captain Hon M.R. Best DSO MVO 15 August 1924 [55]
Captain F.L. Tottenham CBE 14 August 1926 [56]
Captain Charles A. Scott 20 August 1928 [57]
Captain G.C.C. Royle CMG 7 May 1930 [58]
Captain E.O.B.S. Osborne DSO ADC 26 July 1932 [59]
Captain A. Francis Pridham 18 July 1933 [60]
Captain Arthur J. Power CVO 3 October 1935 [61][62]
Captain H.M. Burrough 20 September 1937 [63]
Captain A.F.E. Palliser DSC 19 December 1938 [64]
Captain Eric J.P. Brind 15 May 1940 [65]
Captain Oliver Bevir 28 November 1940 [66][67][68]
Captain H.A. Packer 15 June 1941 [69]
Captain R.D. Oliver CB DSC 15 January 1943 [70]
Captain W.G. Agnew CB DSO 23 February 1944 [71]
Captain W.R. Slayter CB DSO DSC 3 September 1945 [72]
Captain P.V. McLaughlin DSO 7 January 1947 [73]
Captain S.H. Carlill DSO 5 January 1949 [74]
Captain Robert F. Elkins OBE 11 April 1950 [75][76]
Captain Varyl C. Begg DSC 12 April 1952 [77][78]
Captain A. Davies 1954
Captain W.F.H.C. Rutherford DSO 11 March 1954 [79]
Captain R. Casement OBE 2 January 1956 [80]
Captain H.C. Martell CBE 21 January 1958 [81]
Captain J.S. Dalglish CVO 7 September 1959 [82]
Captain John G. Wells DSC 3 August 1961 [83]
Captain H.H. Dannreuther 8 February 1963 [84][85]
Captain Arthur M. Power MBE 15 October 1964 [86]
Captain W.J.M. Teale 31 August 1966 [87]
Captain G.R. Villar DSC 10 January 1969 [88]
Captain P.D. Nichol 11 November 1970 [89]
Captain R.S. Falconer 18 September 1972 [90]
Captain M.C.M. Mansergh 28 October 1974 [91]
Captain Peter Lucas 15 October 1976 [92]
Captain Richard K.S. Bethell OBE 10 October 1978 [93]
Captain J.J. Streatfeild-James 1980? [94]
Captain J.T. Lord CBE 1982? [95][96][97]
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Elements within the site

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HMS Bristol alongside Whale Island.

Maritime Warfare School elements within the site are:[98]

HMS Excellent also provides administrative and infrastructure support to the Maritime Warfare School elements at Defence Diving School, Horsea Island, and small arms ranges at Tipner.

Lodger units

Lodger units are:

Cadets

HMS Excellent is home to a number of Royal Navy cadet units:

Notes

  1. [N 1]
    Supernumerary commander on the books of HMS St Vincent at Portsmouth Navy List corrected to the 20th December 1830, p. 79

References

Sources

External links

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