RICHMOND, Sir Herbert W.

The navy in the war of 1739–48.

Cambridge, at the University Press, 1920. 3 vols, 8vo (235 x 160 mm), pp. xxi, [i, blank], 282; [vi], 279, [1, blank]; [vi], 284, with 34 plates; original brown cloth, series title in gilt on front covers; a little soiled; small stain on the spine of vol. III. First edition. ‘Detailed and comprehensive; the standard work on the Royal Navy’s operations during the period’ (NMM).In 1907 Richmond had returned to England as aide to the Second Sea Lord from the Cape of Good Hope where he had been serving aboard HMS Crescent and where he had first become seriously interested in naval history. He begun this work on the War of Jenkins’ Ear soon after under the encouragement of a close family friend and leading naval historian, Sir Julian S. Corbett. The book was complete by 1914 although due to the interruption of the First World War it was not published until 1920 when it instantly ‘established his reputation as a serious scholar and in 1926 won him the Royal United Service Institution’s Chesney Gold Medal – a distinction previously accorded to only one other naval officer, the American Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan’ (Hunt, Sailor-Scholar p. 1). ‘Of all Richmond’s books this was the most detailed and comprehensive, demonstrating literary ability and analytical skill all the more remarkable in that it came from a serving officer of the Dreadnought era. In recent years, Richmond has been criticized for ignoring important external documentary sources, such as the Spanish records, with the limitations under which he worked, he might be forgiven this shortcoming. The fact is Richmond was the first to tackle the war as an organic whole. It was a pioneering effort which, because of his meticulous attention to detail and careful use of an impressive collection of government documents (both British and French) and contemporary private papers, remains the authoritative work on the subject. Corbett’s verdict that “it’s your war” still stands’ (ibid. p. 26).Throughout his career Richmond was chiefly concerned with the preparation for war of naval officers and the organization of the naval service for dealing with war. Within this, he viewed naval history as a utilitarian craft, useful as an instrument of self-improvement for the navy and the naval officer. His ‘knowledge of history was immense, and coupled with it was a very capacious memory. Some of the officers wondered at first what value this ancient history could be to them in the twentieth century, but they soon found that Richmond had the happy knack of painting a clear picture of every scene, and extracting from most of them the lessons and principles which would apply undeniably to that day as well as to 200 years earlier. In consequence of his inexhaustible storehouse of information and constant reflection thereon, his judgment on matters of policy or strategy was rarely unsound and usually well ahead of his contemporaries’ (Marder, From Dreadnought to Scapa Flow I p. 403). ‘Although it is apparent that The navy in the war of 1739–48 reveals how the conditions and even actions of past wars have a relevance for the present day, the author was much too sophisticated a writer to allow this fact to dominate his recording purpose. In fact, to have linked detailed narrative and breadth of strategic approach, in an artistic balance to convey a strong total impression, was perhaps Richmond’s greatest achievement as an historian’ (Schurman, The education of a navy p. 134).NMM V 1049.

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