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Sir Frank Twiss
Article highlights
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The career of the Second Sea Lord who banned the naval rum ration
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Second Sea Lord 1967 - 1970
Second Sea Lord 1967 - 1970
The Second Sea Lord is Chief of Personnel within the Royal Navy. Twiss's job included managing the welfare of officers and men and overseeing their careers, training and education.
He had to manage Royal Naval entry requirements and recruiting, as well as legal matters and many other issues that fell outside operational boundaries.
Admiralty letter notifying Twiss of his appointment to Second Sea Lord. (RNM)
Twiss had interested himself in personnel affairs because it was clear that if he was going to rise to the top ranks of the Royal Navy this is what he had to do.
Twiss felt that there were some issues of real importance at the time. These included the training of officers, certain social conditions, legal and welfare matters and the rum issue. Twiss tried to tackle these with varying success during his tenure as Second Sea Lord.
Twiss made changes to the living conditions aboard ships, improving where the men spent their leisure hours. He also changed certain social conditions in order to entice new recruits.
He introduced a new military salary scheme introduced with privileges such as free accommodation ashore.
The scheme also abolished messing allowance but made the basic salary higher to compensate. Twiss compared military salaries with civilian salaries to make it fairer.
The result was that sailors would rent homes together ashore rather than living in the barracks, which did create a possible negative effect on the 'esprit de corps'. On the positive side, personnel got better pay in line with their civilian equivalents.
Admiral Twiss at home with his grandson. (RNM)
In regards to officer training, Twiss wanted to develop a degree course for Midshipmen learning to be Lieutenants. There was a government push to get all officers entering the armed services to have degrees before entry.
Twiss felt that developing a university course allowing Midshipmen to gain the vital technical training required for the Royal Navy before officer level posting was the way to accommodate this best.
The idea unfortunately met much opposition and was never realised. Twiss also tried to tackle issues such as courts martial and length of service, which likewise met opposition.
