Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/486

 carried out under the Naval Works Acts of 1895 and subsequent years. The result was that the naval ports and dockyards at home and abroad were renovated and brought up to date to meet the requirements of the modern navy. Under this scheme naval harbours were constructed at Portland, Dover, Gibraltar, and Simon's Bay, and great extensions of the dockyards at Portsmouth, Devonport, Malta, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, and Simon's Bay. In carrying his naval programme Lord Spencer had to contend with a most formidable opposition from Sir William Harcourt and from Mr. Gladstone himself, and it was only the unwavering determination of Richards and his other colleagues on the Board that enabled him to succeed—a success which had no little to do with Mr. Gladstone's final decision to retire from office.

In June 1895 Richards was promoted G.C.B. on the resignation of the Rosebery ministry. Mr. Goschen, who then again became first lord after an interval of over twenty-one years, wisely decided to follow the precedent set by Lord Spencer and to retain the naval advisers of the outgoing government. He and Richards worked together with remarkable unity of purpose during the next four years. The sending of the fleet to the Dardanelles in 1895 brought the Turkish government to a sense of its responsibility for the Armenian massacres; the commissioning of the flying squadron in 1896 indicated clearly to the German Emperor the dangerous consequence of his ill-advised telegram to President Kruger; in 1897 and 1898 it was the action of the British fleet which at length restored order in Crete; the vigorous handling of the naval situation in the Fashoda crisis in 1898 was the chief preventive of war with France over that incident; and, finally, the firm attitude of the government based on the readiness of the fleet stopped any interference by European powers in the Spanish-American War. There was thus a universal and well-founded feeling in the naval service that its interests were safe in the hands of Richards. In November 1898 Richards would have been retired for age, but Goschen obtained a special order in council promoting him to be admiral of the fleet in order that he might remain on the active list until the age of seventy. In the following August Goschen decided that it was time that Richards should give place to a younger officer as first naval lord, though Richards was much disappointed at being superseded after the special promotion to keep him on the active list. He was succeeded by Lord Walter Kerr, who was fully in accord with the policy pursued by the Board during Richards's term of office.

Richards was undoubtedly one of the leading administrators in the history of the navy. He early won the confidence of his superiors, and was selected for one important duty after another, performing them with unfailing success until he reached the position of chief naval adviser to the Crown at a time when a firm and clear restatement of the essentials of maritime policy was invaluable to the country. Richards was a man of prudent foresight, clear, if limited, vision, and firm determination that what he knew to be right should be done. His powerful intellect was somewhat slow in operation; but, though not ready in council, he could and did express his views in admirable English which left no doubt of his intention or of the strength of will that lay behind it. His official minutes were models of vigorous style and well-chosen language. As a sea officer it was not his fortune to command a battle fleet or to win the renown of such great peace commanders as Sir Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby and Sir Arthur Knyvet Wilson. His great natural qualities of a clear brain and indomitable will, combined with a gift for organization, found their best opportunity in his work at Whitehall. Though he was naturally of a retiring disposition, always avoiding publicity and loathing controversy, his character was so transparently honest and just and his devotion to his service and country so marked that he was regarded throughout the naval service with a most complete confidence and trust. In private life he was a constant friend and, though a ruler among men and of a stern exterior, was full of human sympathy, and possessed a deep fund of humour and kindness of heart.

After his retirement Richards maintained his interest in naval affairs, and although he was not in sympathy with many of the changes and reforms carried out by later administrations, he seldom expressed his mind in public and took no share in controversy. In 1904, shortly after the election of Lord Goschen as chancellor of Oxford University, Richards was given the honorary degree of D.C.L. He died at Horton Court, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, 28 September 1912.

After the successful struggle over the naval programme in the Cabinet of 1893–1894, the officers of the fleet had Richards's 460