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The following obituary for Henry Forster Cleveland appeared in the Times newspaper.
| Obituary in the Times newspaper | |
| Date | Obituary |
| 22 January 1924 | ADMIRAL CLEVELAND. Admiral Henry Forster Cleveland, who died on Saturday at Eastboume, in his 90th year, was a singularly modest and eficient officer, whose prescience in naval policy was strikingly shown in the essay with which he won the gold medal of the Royal United Service Institution in 1889.In this essay, the subject of wbich was "The Maritime Defence of the United Kingdom," he said that commlttees and commissions had not succeeded in solving the naval problem owing to failure to grasp the fact that uninterrupted communications with the outside world were a matter of life and death to the people of the United Kingdom. They had feared invasion, and had concentrated energies on land fortiflcations, white the Navy, the only line of defence, had been starved. Higher standards were required, training and responsibility should be insisted on, and useless vessels on foreign stations should be "scrapped." He was thus in line with the policy that was to come. The Colonies and Dominions, he said, must contribute. How far Captain Cleveland, as he then was, foresaw the conditions of the Great War may be judged by his exhortation not to trust to diplomatic devices such as the Declaration of Paris. To what limitations, he asked, would the vague term "contraband of war" be conflned? The essay took a wide survey of the work to be done and, in detail, of the force required for its execution. During his long career Cleveland never flew his flag afloat, and was hardly known at all outside the Service, of which he was a typical officer in his modesty, zeal, and devotion to duty. Born on April 28, 1834, the son of a Yorkshire rector, he was sent to Grantham College, and joined the Service as a boy of 14. In 1854 he was acting mate — there were then no sub-lieutenants — of the Vestal, a vigilant and successful cruiser against the slave schooners off the coast of Brazil and in the West Indies. Alter this experience Cleveland was promoted to lieutenant in January, 1857, and in that rank, in the Assistance [should be: Assurance] and the Resistance, spent about seven years in the Mediterranean. During this period he turned his attention to gunnery, a side of his profession which was growing in importance, and in April, 1867, was appointed for gunnery duties to the Hibernia, flagship of the Admiral Superintendent at Malta. On promotion he went as commander to the Liffey, frigate, in the Particular Service Squadron of Rear-Admiral Hornby, and then, in November, 1872, became commander of the Excellent, gunnery ship at Portsmouth, at the time when Captain Brandreth was in command and the future Lord Fisher was commander for torpedo instruction. He was promoted to captain in November, 1875, and, after undergoing a course of study at the Royal Naval College when on half-pay, was successively captain of the Iron Duke, flagship of Vice-Admiral Coote on the China Station, of the Superb in the Mediterranean during the concluding years of the Egyptian War, and of the Cambridge, gunnery ship at Devonport. His reputation stood high in the Navy as a model captain and flne disciplinarian, and in May, 1887, he was rewarded with a captain's Good Service pension. Captain Cleveland was promoted to flag rank in August, 1890, and was vice-president of the Ordnance Committee at Woolwich from 1891 to December, 1894, when he retired. He was promoted to vice-admiral on the retired list in February, 1897, and to admiral in January, 1902. In his later years he devoted himself to useful public work, especially as a member of the Thames Conservancy Board, as nautical assessor to the House of Lords, and as a member of the council of the Royal United Service Institution. He was appointed a director of Palmer's Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Jarrow, in 1895, and was mayor of Richmond, Yorkshire, in 1903, and a magistrate for the North Riding. |
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