The East Indies Station was a formation and command of the British Royal Navy. Created in 1744 by the Admiralty, it was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies.[1]
Even in official documents, the term East Indies Station was often used. In 1941, the ships of the China Squadron and East Indies Squadron were merged to form the Eastern Fleet under the control of the Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Fleet.[2] The China Station then ceased as a separate command. The East Indies Station was disbanded in 1958.
It encompassed Royal Navy Dockyards and bases in East Africa, Middle East, India and Ceylon, and other ships not attached to other fleets. For many years under rear admirals, from the 1930s the Commander-in-Chief was often an Admiral or a Vice-Admiral.
History
Navy House, Trincomalee, residence of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station, from 1811 to 1942
The East Indies Station was established as a Royal Navy command in 1744. From 1831 to 1865, the East Indies and the China Station were a single command known as the East Indies and China Station.[3] The East Indies Station, established in 1865, was responsible for British naval operations in the Indian Ocean (excluding the waters around the Dutch East Indies, South Africa and Australia) and included the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.[4] From 1913, the station was renamed the Egypt and East Indies Station until 1918.[5][6]
Anti-slavery activities in East Africa
During the 1850s and 1860s, the Royal Navy fought to suppress the slave trade operating out of Zanzibar up to the North Coast of the Arabian Sea.[7] An East African Squadron, which was part of the East Indies Station, was active in suppressing slavery in 1869.[8] The mission of Sir Bartle Frere in 1869 "produced... a recommendation that a guardship be permanently stationed off the Zanzibar coast."[9] Britain's real intentions in East Africa was to stop other European naval powers from establishing any similar bases in the region, and the station's purpose was to protect British trade interests passing through the Western Indian Ocean.[10] Rawley writes that Captain George Sulivan and his successor directed the activities of the old ship-of-the-line HMS London(1840), reequipped as both prison and hospital, with some success. London served as a base for cruisers operating against the slaving dhows, for four years.[11]
By 1873, London was a hulk, serving as a depot ship in Zanzibar Bay, off the east coast of Africa. In March 1878, she was recommissioned and involved in the suppression of the slave trade in the area, serving as a central depot for many smaller steam screw boats; she functioned as a repair depot, a hospital and a storage ship. At this time, there were Africans from West Africa (Kroomen or Krumen) and East Africa (Seedies or Sidis) serving on board. There were also Zanzibari and Arab interpreters and cooks from Portuguese Goa (India). London was sold and broken up in 1884.[12]
In early May 1941, the Commander-in-Chief directed forces to support the pursuit of Pinguin, the German raider that eventually sank after the action of 8 May 1941 against HMS Cornwall.[14]
In response to increased Japanese threats, the separate East Indies Station was merged with the China Station in December 1941, to form the Eastern Fleet.[17] Later the Eastern Fleet became the East Indies Fleet. In 1952, after the Second World War ended, the East Indies Fleet became the Far East Fleet.[18]
Meanwhile, a separate Commander-in-Chief for the East Indies was reappointed. During the 1950s, the task for Royal Navy vessels in the East Indies "..was to deliver fighting power in support of British foreign policy, be that in major warfighting (Korea) or low intensity operations such as counterinsurgency (Malaya), and to offer a British military presence in support of national policy."[19] But disagreement over Suez meant that the Ceylonese Government did not wish to let British naval forces use their bases in an emergency, and this policy was reaffirmed by the new government installed after the 1956 Ceylonese parliamentary election.[20] The Navy Yard, and Admiralty House were handed over on 15 October 1957, the flag was lowered over the shore establishment HMS Highflyer, and the next day, 16 October 1957, the last flagship, HMS Ceylon, left Trincomalee. The station was temporarily relocated to Bahrain. The Senior Naval Officer, Persian Gulf was to become an independent commander with the title Commodore, Arabian Seas and Persian Gulf. "At nine o'clock on the morning of 7 September 1958, 'the flag of the one-hundredth Commander in Chief of the East Indies Station, Vice Admiral Sir Hilary Biggs, was hauled down over HMS Jufair,'" the Royal Navy base in Bahrain.[21]
Subordinate Commands
Flag Officer, East Africa
Originally established by the Royal Navy as East Coast of Africa Station (1862–1919) was administered by the Flag Officer, East Africa. This officer was subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station, then later came under the Eastern Fleet from 1862, from April 1942 to September 1943, and then the command's name changed back to the East Indies station.
The Royal Indian Navy (RIN) was the naval force of British India and the Dominion of India from 1 May 1830 to 26 January 1950. It came under the East Indies Station at the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939.[24] In December 1941 it came under the command of the new Eastern Fleet.
The Senior Naval Officer, Red Sea, was responsible to the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies, and during the Second World War for a period flew his flag afloat in HMS Egret.
The Royal Navy's presence in the Persian Gulf was originally located at Basidu, Qishm Island, in Persia (c. 1850–1935), then later Juffair, Bahrain. It was commanded by the Senior Naval Officer, Persian Gulf. It included a naval base, depot and naval forces known as the Persian Gulf Patrol, then the Persian Gulf Squadron later called the Persian Gulf Division. It was a sub-command of the East Indies Station until 1958 when it was merged with the Red Sea Station under the new appointment of Commodore, Arabian Seas and Persian Gulf.[28]
^Byron's appointment was initially a subterfuge, designed to provide apparent legitimacy for a voyage along the coast of Spanish South America and around the Cape of Good Hope. Byron's true mission was to establish a British naval presence on an uninhabited island off Spanish South America, which he achieved via landings on the Falkland Islands in December 1764.[54]
^James A. Rawley (1988). "Book Review: Raymond C. Howell, The Royal Navy and the Slave Trade". International Journal of African Historical Studies. 21 (1–2). Africana Publishing Company: 184.
^Waters, S. D. (2016) [1956]. The Royal New Zealand Navy. Official History of New Zealand in the Second World War 1939–45 (online ed.). Wellington, NZ: War History Branch, Dept. of Internal Affairs. p. 109. OCLC11085179. Retrieved 10 February 2017 – via New Zealand Electronic Text Centre.
^Ashley Jackson (2006), The Royal Navy and the Indian Ocean region since 1945, The RUSI Journal, Vol. 151, No. 6, December 2006, 79.
^Ashley Jackson (2006), The Royal Navy and the Indian Ocean region since 1945, The RUSI Journal, Vol. 151, No. 6, December 2006, 81, also drawing upon Cecil Hampshire, "The Royal Navy Since 1945: Its Transition to the Nuclear Age" (London William Kimber, 1975), p. 140-144.
^Roberts, John (2009). Safeguarding the Nation: The Story of the Modern Royal Navy. Barnsley, England: Seaforth Publishing. p. 18. ISBN978-1848320437.
^Wells, Anne Sharp (2000). The Anglo-American "special relationship" during the Second World War : a selective guide to materials in the British Library. [London]: Eccles Centre for American Studies, The British Library. p. 25. ISBN0712344268.
^J. K. Laughton, Griffin, Thomas (1692/3–1771), rev. Richard Harding, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^Clive Wilkinson, Boscawen, Edward (1711–1761), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^J. K. Laughton, Watson, Charles (1714–1757), rev. A. W. H. Pearsall, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^Tom Pocock, Pocock, Sir George (1706–1792), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^J. K. Laughton, Steevens, Charles (bap. 1705, d. 1761), rev. Richard Harding, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^J. K. Laughton, Cornish, Sir Samuel, baronet (c. 1715–1770), rev. Nicholas Tracy, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 17 Dec 2011
^ abcWard, Peter A. (2013). British Naval Power in the East, 1794-1805. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. p. 245. ISBN978-1-84383-848-7.
^ abRea, Robert R. (October 1981). "Florida and the Royal Navy's Floridas". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 60 (2). Florida Historical Society: 187.
^J. K. Laughton, Lindsay, Sir John (1737–1788), rev. Clive Wilkinson, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2007, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^J. K. Laughton, Harland, Sir Robert, first baronet (c.1715–1784), rev. Randolph Cock, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^ abJ. K. Laughton, Hughes, Sir Edward (c.1720–1794), rev. Roger Knight, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^J. K. Laughton, Nicholas Tracy, Vernon, Sir Edward (1723–1794), rev. Nicholas Tracy, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
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^Kenneth Breen, Rainier, Peter (1741–1808), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2011, accessed 17 Dec 2011.
^J. K. Laughton, Hood, Sir Samuel, first baronet (1762–1814), rev. Michael Duffy, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007, accessed 18 Dec 2011.
^The United Service Magazine, 1831, Part 2, page 222
^J. K. Laughton, Andrew Lambert, King, Sir Richard, second baronet (1774–1834), rev. Andrew Lambert, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 Dec 2011.
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^Marshall, John (2010). "Rear-Admirals of the White". Royal Naval Biography: Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-Officers, Superannuated Rear-Admirals, Retired-Captains, Post-Captains, and Commanders. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 722. ISBN9781108022651.
^J. K. Laughton, Roger Morriss, Gage, Sir William Hall (1777–1864), rev. Roger Morriss, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 18 Dec 2011.
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United Kingdom
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