# Reginald Custance

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{{Short description|Royal Navy Admiral (1847–1935)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
| honorific_prefix = [Admiral](/source/Admiral_(Royal_Navy))
| name             = Sir Reginald Custance
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCB|KCMG|CVO}}
| image            = 
| caption          = 
| birth_date       = 20 September 1847
| death_date       = {{death-date and age|30 August 1935|20 September 1847}}
| birth_place      = 
| death_place      = 
| burial_place     = 
| burial_label     = Place of burial
| nickname         = 
| allegiance       = {{UK}}
| branch           = {{navy|United Kingdom}}
| service_years    = 1860–1908
| rank             = [Admiral](/source/Admiral_(Royal_Navy))
| unit             = 
| commands         = [HMS ''Phaeton''](/source/HMS_Phaeton_(1883))<br>[HMS ''Barfleur''](/source/HMS_Barfleur_(1892))<br>[HMS ''Blenheim''](/source/HMS_Blenheim_(1890))
| battles          = 
| awards           = [Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath](/source/Knight_Grand_Cross_of_the_Order_of_the_Bath)<br>[Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George](/source/Knight_Commander_of_the_Order_of_St_Michael_and_St_George)<br>[Commander of the Royal Victorian Order](/source/Commander_of_the_Royal_Victorian_Order)
| relations        = 
| other_work       = 
}}
[Admiral](/source/Admiral_(Royal_Navy)) '''Sir Reginald Neville Custance''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|GCB|KCMG|CVO}} (20 September 1847 – 30 August 1935) was a [Royal Navy](/source/Royal_Navy) officer. He was the eldest son of General [William Neville Custance](/source/William_Neville_Custance) CB.

==Naval career==
Custance joined the [Royal Navy](/source/Royal_Navy) in 1860. Promoted to [captain](/source/Captain_(Royal_Navy)) on 31 December 1885,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=25547|page=115|date=8 January 1886}}</ref> he was given command of the [cruiser](/source/cruiser) [HMS ''Phaeton''](/source/HMS_Phaeton_(1883)) in January 1890, of the [battleship](/source/battleship) [HMS ''Barfleur''](/source/HMS_Barfleur_(1892)) in February 1895 and of the cruiser [HMS ''Blenheim''](/source/HMS_Blenheim_(1890)) in September 1898.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/ROYAL%20NAVY%20WARSHIPS.pdf|title=Captains commanding Royal Navy warships|accessdate=14 November 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714184102/http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/ROYAL%20NAVY%20WARSHIPS.pdf|archivedate=14 July 2015}}</ref> He went on to be [Director of Naval Intelligence](/source/Naval_Intelligence_Division_(United_Kingdom)) in March 1899.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Custance, Vice-Adm. Sir Reg. Neville|magazine=Who's Who|year=1907|volume= 59|page=432|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yEcuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA432}}</ref> During his first year as Director, he was promoted to flag rank as a [rear-admiral](/source/Rear_admiral_(Royal_Navy)) on 1 August 1899.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27119|page=5814|date=22 September 1899}}</ref> Custance was [Prince Louis of Battenberg](/source/Prince_Louis_of_Battenberg)'s superior in the Naval Intelligence Department and tried to prevent Battenberg's promotion to succeed him.<ref>{{harvnb|Lambert|2012|pp=283-5}}</ref>

In November 1902 Custance was asked to take the position of Second-in-Command of the [Mediterranean Fleet](/source/Mediterranean_Fleet), after the sudden death of Rear-Admiral [Burges Watson](/source/Burges_Watson).<ref>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Important Naval Appointments|date=23 October 1902 |page=3 |issue=36906}}</ref> He flew his flag on the battleship [HMS ''Venerable''](/source/HMS_Venerable_(1899)), on her first commission. He was promoted to [vice-admiral](/source/Vice-admiral_(Royal_Navy)) on 20 October 1904.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=27726|page=6724|date=21 October 1904}}</ref> He was appointed Second-in-Command of the [Channel Fleet](/source/Channel_Fleet) in February 1907.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Senior%20Royal%20Navy%20Appointments%201865-.pdf|title=Senior Royal Navy appointments|accessdate=14 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cobb |first1=Stephen |title=Preparing for Blockade 1885-1914: Naval Contingency for Economic Warfare |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JwjtCwAAQBAJ&q=William+Neville+Custance&pg=PA268 |publisher=Routledge |accessdate=23 November 2018 |language=en |date=8 April 2016|isbn=9781317076155 }}</ref>

==Later life==
Draft notes in [Winston Churchill](/source/Winston_Churchill)'s papers (Churchill was [First Lord of the Admiralty](/source/First_Lord_of_the_Admiralty) at the time) suggest that in late 1913 Custance, who had been unemployed for six years, was considered for the post of Chief of Naval War Staff. [Prince Louis of Battenberg](/source/Prince_Louis_of_Battenberg), now [First Sea Lord](/source/First_Sea_Lord) but normally subservient to Churchill's wishes, gave what historian Nicholas Lambert describes as “uncharacteristically fierce resistance” to appointing Custance, his former boss. Instead [Doveton Sturdee](/source/Doveton_Sturdee), a former disciple of Custance, was appointed.<ref>{{harvnb|Lambert|2012|pp=283-5}}</ref>

[Lord Sydenham of Combe](/source/George_Clarke%2C_1st_Baron_Sydenham_of_Combe) (4 October 1916) and Custance (9 October 1916) complained in letters to ''[The Times](/source/The_Times)'' that Churchill's recent statements (Churchill was out of office at the time) that the German [High Seas Fleet](/source/High_Seas_Fleet) was effectively blockaded and that surplus forces should be used in offensive operations (similar to the views of naval theorist [Julian Corbett](/source/Julian_Corbett)) ignored the importance of seeking a decisive victory over the German Fleet. Sturdee also complained in a private memorandum (24 Nov 1916) that Churchill's policy was “the exact reverse of what he advocated when in office and expressed in public speeches”. Historian Christopher Bell thinks this not quite fair – Churchill had advocated risking old, near-obsolete ships in the [attack on the Dardanelles](/source/Naval_operations_in_the_Dardanelles_campaign) but had never suggested weakening Britain's superiority over Germany in the North Sea. In articles ([The London Magazine](/source/The_London_Magazine) December 1916 and January 1917) and in a Commons speech (21 February 1917) Churchill continued to argue that seeking a major naval victory over Germany was unrealistic but that Germany was effectively blockaded even if such a blockade now took place from bases further away from the enemy than in Napoleonic times.<ref>{{harvnb|Bell|2012|pp=77-8}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book|last=Lambert|first=Nicholas|title=Planning Armageddon: British Economic Warfare and the First World War|publisher= Harvard University Press; 1st Edition|location=Cambridge Massachusetts|year=2012|isbn=0-67406-149-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Bell|first=Christopher|title=Churchill and Sea Power|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|year=2012|isbn=0-19969-357-9}} 

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef|before=[Lewis Beaumont](/source/Lewis_Beaumont)}}
{{s-ttl|title=[Director of Naval Intelligence](/source/Naval_Intelligence_Division_(United_Kingdom))|years=1899–1902}}
{{s-aft|after=[Prince Louis of Battenberg](/source/Prince_Louis_of_Battenberg)}}
{{s-end}}

{{Directors of Naval Intelligence}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Custance, Reginald}}
Category:1847 births
Category:1935 deaths
Category:Directors of Naval Intelligence
Category:Royal Navy admirals
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Category:Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Category:Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Reginald Custance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Custance) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Custance?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.