| A Brief History of The Naval Review |
|
|
| The Naval Review was founded in 1912, by the following officers,
who had formed a Naval Society: |
|
There was quite a lot of resistance initially – the Naval
Staff had only been set up in 1912. Indeed, shortly after the outbreak of WW1,
the Admiralty effectively ordered the Review to
cease publication, on security grounds, and the whole thing was
practically stillborn. But the first editor continued to amass
material, and at the end of the war published it, year by year, as it
would have been if there’d been no Admiralty embargo. There are
issues for 1915, '16, '17 and '18.
|
| After the war, they got back into the swing of things, and
have never looked back since. |
|
In 1928, The Naval Review was established as a Charitable
Trust, governed by a Trust Deed, and that remains its status today. |
| It has been published quarterly throughout the last 84
years, including throughout World War 2 (no problems with censorship, and the
regular series “Notes on the War at Sea” provide a most authoritative
contemporary overview of naval events as they occurred). There have been only
eight honorary editors since 1913. All have been distinguished naval officers. |
| The Naval Review prides itself on its independence: it is not subject to any
form of censorship by the Ministry of Defence, and considers itself to be a
Journal of Record. All the material which is published is generated solely by the concerns and interests of its
members. The authors are responsible for ensuring that
current security regulations are not breached. |
| In broad terms the material covers: |
| A most important section is the correspondence section, for
it was from this that The Naval Review originally grew. It enables
readers to express their own views on current topics which may have been
the subject of articles in previous issues. There is also a substantial
section of book reviews. Reviews of books on naval and military matters
in the press at large tend to be written by people with little experience
of the subject reviewed. Our reviewers bring practical knowledge to
the subject under consideration and their reviews are all the more
authoritative. |
| The Naval Review is uniquely privileged in that its naval
members are permitted to publish in its pages without having to seek Ministry
of Defence approval for their article. As a consequence, circulation is limited to the membership,
and that membership is itself restricted. All commissioned officers, serving or retired,
of any of the armed forces and the Reserves of the Commonwealth may subscribe as of right,
and also officers of the Navy’s supporting civil services
(see Membership page for full details):
applications for membership from other people "in touch with and interested in the Royal Navy"
are determined by the editor. Lest this sound restrictive,
it may be said that the current membership includes senior ratings in the Royal Navy;
a Chelsea Pensioner; a village schoolmaster; several academics in the UK, Australia and USA;
authors (sometimes the same as academics, but not necessarily); students; a
couple of specialist journalists; engineers, etc., etc..
|
|