By
LEUT Tom Lewis
A sure way of ensuring rage from Army colleagues is for a
Navy member to start up a discussion as to the order of protocol
for a march, or a display, or whatever - and insisting that
Navy goes first, in that “the Navy is the Senior Service”.
But what is the background, and indeed the validity of this
argument? The usual suggestion is that the Royal Navy is the
oldest service in Britain’s history. There was a “standing
Navy” in Tudor times, whereas the Army was an occasional thing,
dating back from the “feudal levies”.
Indeed, if we examine the history of the British Navy, we
can see that many historians trace it back to King Alfred’s
time, when in 885AD he “...went out to sea in ships and fought
against four ships’ companies of Danes.” A rationale for keeping
naval forces on hand relates to the way armies and navies
were used from their earliest times.
An army’s main tactics related to skills that could be kept
up without the soldiers being in a permanent force: the use
of bow and simple sword was a skill that an average rural
inhabitant of Britain might be expected to keep for defence
and for hunting. Thus the main body of troops did not need
to be professional soldiers.
However, the handling of a ship at sea demanded more practice,
and ships needed to be maintained and kept ready for use.
Therefore, for example, the British in 1217 were able to put
immediately to sea a force of 36 ships to deal with a French
fleet threatening attack off Dover.
And so down the years the monarchs saw to it that a full-time
force was maintained. A permanent army, by contrast, does
not seem to be a feature of British history until the “New
Model” force under Cromwell.
Indeed, as one Encyclopedia notes, there is indeed some seniority
involved in the prefix “Royal” for the Navy: “The incorporation
of the Royal Navy was in contrast to the land forces, which
are descended from parliamentary forces and hence are not
royal”. The bequeathing of traditions, customs, and ship battle
honours from the RN to its daughter-service of the RAN means
that the RAN has inherited the term “senior service” as well.
Indeed, the term is still in popular use, as the Australian
Defence Force saw recently: “Defence Minister Robert Hill
will congratulate the incoming Chief of Navy and says he looks
forward to working closely with the new head of the ADF’s
senior service.”
