‘A Nation that forgets its past has no future’
Winston S Churchill

As First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill implemented his conviction, as he established the Naval Staff before the First World War.  He required the staff to include a Historical Section, explaining it should

…be the means of sifting, developing and applying the results of history and experience, and of preserving them as a general stock of reasoned opinion available as an aid and guide for all who are called upon to determine, in peace or war, the naval policy of the country.

His requirement has enduring relevance today as the Naval Historical Branch (NHB) is still part of the First Sea Lord’s Naval Staff, providing advice and support to defence policy and operations, but also fulfilling a much wider range of tasks for both the government and the public. 

At the outbreak of the Second World War the Branch’s limited staff was assigned purely to the collection of information. However, the first serious German threat to Britain proved to be mines laid in the sea off our coasts. The Vice-Chief of the Naval Staff required historical analysis in order to counter this effectively. When presented with a mass of raw data and no one to interpret it, he immediately had the Branch reconstituted as both a collecting and analytical organisation. During the war the NHB produced hundreds of reports, including immediate Battle Summaries, which allowed rapid improvements in the Royal Navy’s effectiveness. After the war these were developed into authoritative histories which incorporated captured German materials and are used extensively within the defence community. They were a basis for the Official Histories and many subsequent works, and NHB is currently publishing them to make them more widely available.

The Naval Historical Branch works in partnership with Fleet Headquarters in order to ensure that records of the Royal Navy’s wide-range of activities are produced, preserved and organised, so that their content is permanently accessible. This is vital for the Branch’s main business but is also central to legal, pension and compensation issues. These are an increasing aspect of the Branch’s work and have considerable financial implications. While the Branch does not ‘judge’ any cases, it does provide a vital expert input which both assists the early resolution of legitimate claims and helps challenge any which may be more doubtful. As the former First Sea Lord, Lord West of Spithead, put it, ‘To those who are sceptical about the cost of this historical input the loss of just one legal case because of lack of written documents would pay for the Branch…’

The Branch’s information is also used for a wide range of other government tasks. These include answering Parliamentary questions, inputs into training at all levels and the urgent supply of information to bomb disposal experts who encounter old mines and bombs. Coupling this information with the expertise of its staff, the Branch is able to assist with many other areas of public concern. Recently these have included the Formal Investigation into the loss of the trawler Gaul, and a civil action on the loss of the SS Storaa.

The Naval Historical Branch has close links with the academic community and also assists the wider public. Its assistance to academics helps to inform and stimulate debate on the Navy and defence, and its staff regularly present papers on subjects as diverse as the D-Day landings and the suppression of the slave trade.  The Branch also assists the public to the greatest extent its resources allow.  Currently it answers well over 1,000 public enquiries a year, many of them concerned with family history but which can encompass any aspect of naval service from naval cookery to ships’ names (the Head of NHB is also the Chairman of the Ships’ Names & Badges Committee ).  The staff take great satisfaction in providing this assistance, which also reflects the Ministry of Defence’s emphasis on Veterans’ Affairs and the Freedom of Information Act.

In order to achieve its tasks the NHB has two main sources of information: the Archive and the Admiralty Library. The Archive has been built up since the formation of the Branch, and its main focus is on organising and preserving operational records. While many records are now electronic, they are supplemented by hard copies. The records are used internally and made available to other researchers as security allows. The archival collections complement those in the National Archives at Kew, and also include private collections that have been donated to the Branch. Some of its most important holdings are copies of the German naval archives up the end of the Second World War. The archive’s curator is also able to access the National Archives’ holdings for official purposes. 

The archive resources are complemented by the Admiralty Library, a part of the Branch older than the Branch itself, and the property of the Admiralty Board.  Managed in co-operation with the Royal Naval Museum, its collection of over 160,000 items has been built up for over 200 years and it is one of the finest collections of maritime books in the world. NHB’s Portsmouth offices provide an efficient ‘one-stop-shop’ for the Royal Navy’s requirement for historical information.

Ultimately though, the information would be little value without staff able to exploit it. The Branch has 11 staff drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds including the Royal Navy, academia and museums.  They have a range of expertise and six have post-graduate qualifications.  Their task continues to be to provide the best possible historical service and so assist the Royal Navy to achieve its objectives.