Future Space Lords

Here's the thing. I often think about who could fill various shoes if some unexpected, unforeseen tragedy transpired. Who has it in their blood to step into such an exalted position as First Space Lord right this minute? Who do you think would do a good job, and where? Consider all current officers.

It has long been agreed that you should never place all of your eggs in one basket, however, during the Oyster Bay attack all of the current Space Lords could have been accidentally wiped out the same as the fate of many treecats, had they all been present at a compulsory meeting of the Space Lords set forth by the Lord of Admiralty, when some errant debris of a destroyed SD came plummeting down on the wrong place at the wrong time.

So, this is an emergency meeting. Replace the Space Lords. Assume all Lords of Admiralty survived. Hamish lives.

Who do you vote for? Now, or in the future?

It's a herculean task to replace this much of the command structure. Yet, the Soul of Steel, the Salamander, the Lords of Admiralty and most of the Navy still lives and the show must go on.

Without a doubt there are warm bodies that I am overlooking that could be called from a pool of officers from other capacities - administrative, or even half-pay.

Go to the polls, cast your vote.

So far, I have two ...

First Space Lord: Honor Harrington
IMHO, I feel Honor would make an excellent First Space Lord in the future. That's an intuitive no-brainer. Problem arises if the need manifests itself NOW. That would be a hard call.

Second Space Lord: ???

Third Space Lord: ???

Fourth Space Lord: Alice Truman
I feel Alice Truman would fill the bill here perfectly. I also feel Truman could command *Home Fleet.

Fifth Space Lord: ???

Sixth Space Lord: ???

Seventh Space Lord: ???

*Remember, CO of Home Fleet has to be considered.

Reference:

The First Space Lord was a member of the Manticoran Admiralty and the senior uniformed officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy.

The First Space Lord was a senior active-duty Admiral. His or her office was located in the Admiralty Building in Landing. (HH2)

Until 1904 PD, the office was held by Fleet Admiral Sir James Webster, Baron of New Dallas. In 1903 PD, he had plans for HMS Fearless, once the ship's refit was completed: the ship and its commanding officer, Honor Harrington, were used for a diplomatic mission that should later prove vital for the future of the Manticoran Alliance. (HH1, HH2)

When Lord Webster retired from the service around 1905 PD, he was replaced by Admiral Sir Thomas Caparelli. (HH3) When the Duke of Cromarty was assassinated and the High Ridge government came to power, the post was given to Admiral Sir Simon Chakrabarti. (HH9)

When Chakrabarti attempted to induce First Lord of the Admiralty Edward Janacek to either reinforce Sidemore Station or expand Honor Harrington's orders, and was refused, he resigned from his office. Once Operation Thunderbolt led to the fall of the High Ridge government, Caparelli was once again appointed as First Space Lord. (HH10)

Known First Space Lords
Admiral Sir Frederick Truman[1] (c1850 PD)
Admiral Murdoch Alexander (c1852 PD)
Admiral Franklyn Dodson (c1870 PD)
Fleet Admiral Sir James Webster (c1900 - c1904 PD)
Admiral Sir Thomas Caparelli (1905-1915 PD)
Admiral Sir Simon Chakrabarti (1915-1919 PD)
Admiral Sir Thomas Caparelli (1919 PD - )

The Second Space Lord was one of the Lords of Admiralty who controlled the Royal Manticoran Navy, responsible for handling operational and tactical planning. He or she was also the head of the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Bureau of Planning. (HH3)
Known Second Space Lords
Admiral Bethany Havinghurst (1844 PD)
Admiral Shadwell Turner, Baron of Big Sky (1857 PD)
Vice Admiral Patricia Givens (1905-1915 PD)
Admiral Francis Jurgensen (1915-1919 PD)
Admiral Patricia Givens (1920 PD - )

The Third Space Lord was a member of the Lords of Admiralty that controlled the Royal Manticoran Navy, in charge of the Bureau of Ships.
The holder of the office oversaw all construction and maintenance in association with the fiscal directions of the Second Lord of the Admiralty. The major space stations in the Manticore System as well as the dispersed yards in planetary orbits were under his or her control.

Refit and Repair Command also reported to the Third Space Lord and oversaw the shipyard portions of the stations, managing routine maintenance to service life extension programs and major refits.

Logistics Command and its operational formation, the Fifth Fleet, were jointly tasked with maintaining, organizing, and deploying all units of the fleet train[1] and with meeting the logistics requirements of the other operational fleets. (Companion)

Office holders
~ 1850 PD : Admiral Robert Hemphill, Baron Low Delhi (Companion)
– 1900 PD : Admiral Hamish Alexander, Earl White Haven
1900 PD – : Admiral Lucy Danvers (HH1)
1920 PD : Vice Admiral Lilian Danver (HH10)
1921 PD : Vice Admiral Anton Toscarelli

The Fourth Space Lord was a member of the Lords of Admiralty that controlled the Royal Manticoran Navy, in charge of the Bureau of Weapons.
As such, he or she was responsible for the research and development of new systems for the Navy. (HH9)

Known office holders
Dame Carrie Lomax – mid-1800s PD (Companion)
Admiral George Rodriguez – ~1870 PD (Companion)
Vice Admiral Jonas Adcock – mid-1910s PD (HH9)
Lady Dame Sonja Hemphill, Baroness of Low Delhi – before 1919 PD (HH11)

The Fifth Space Lord was a member of the Lords of Admiralty who controlled the Royal Manticoran Navy. The Fifth Space Lord was responsible for the Bureau of Personnel (BuPers for short), which handled recruitment, training, and personnel assignments for the Navy.
Known officer holders
Admiral Sir William Spruance (c1850 PD)
Admiral Dame Lynette Tillman (c1870 PD)
Admiral Sir Lucien Cortez (c1900-1905 PD)
Admiral Josette Draskovic (1915-1919 PD)
Admiral Sir Lucien Cortez (1919 PD -)

The Sixth Space Lord was a member of the Lords of he Admiralty who controlled the Royal Manticoran Navy. The Sixth Space Lord was responsible for the Bureau of Training (BuTrain for short), which handled the training and education of naval personnel in accordance with the Third Lord of Admiralty.
In 1850 PD, the Sixth Space Lord was the Earl of Three Pines. (Companion)

In the 1910s PD, Frederick Ormskirk held the office. (HH11)

The Seventh Space Lord was the seventh most senior uniformed officer of the Royal Manticoran Navy, holding the offices of Surgeon General of the Star Kingdom of Manticore and head of the Bureau of Medicine.
Around 1920 PD, the position was held by Vice Admiral Allen Mannock. (HH9)

Manticoran auxiliary hospital ships were jointly managed between the Third Space Lord and the Seventh Space Lord. (Companion)

Edit:
Posting changed to allow for the distinction of Lords of Admiralty and Space Lords. An oversight on my part, pointed out by ... Dafmeister.

Thank you Meister.


.

Not going to happen with HH getting First Space lord, that is a policy level command. Honor will bounce between fleet command and teaching e.g. CO of RMNA-SI or Intro and Advanced Tactics or CO ATC. If she does become a Space Lord it will be something like second or fourth

[quote="cthia"]Here's the thing. I often think about who could fill various shoes if some unexpected, unforeseen tragedy transpired. Who has it in their blood to step into such an exalted position as Lord of Admiralty right this minute? Who do you think would do a good job, and where? Consider all current officers.

It has long been agreed that you should never place all of your eggs in one basket, however, during the Oyster Bay attack all of the current Lords of Admiralty could have been accidentally wiped out the same as the fate of many treecats, had they all been present at a compulsory meeting of the Lords of Admiralty when some errant debris of a destroyed SD came plummeting down on the wrong place at the wrong time.

So, this is an emergency meeting. Replace the Lords of Admiralty. Who do you vote for? Now, or in the future?

It's a herculean task to replace this much of the command structure. Yet, the Soul of Steel, the Salamander and most of the Navy still lives and the show must go on.

Without a doubt there are warm bodies that I am overlooking that could be called from a pool of officers from other capacities - administrative, or even half-pay.

Go to the polls, cast your vote.

So far, I have two ...

First Space Lord: Honor Harrington
IMHO, I feel Honor would make an excellent First Space Lord in the future. That's an intuitive no-brainer. Problem arises if the need manifests itself NOW. That would be a hard call.

Second Space Lord: ???

Third Space Lord: ???

Fourth Space Lord: Alice Truman
I feel Alice Truman would fill the bill here perfectly. I also feel Truman could command *Home Fleet.

Fifth Space Lord: ???

Sixth Space Lord: ???

Seventh Space Lord: ???

*Remember, CO of Home Fleet has to be considered.


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I agree with Sabre --
HH would NOT like being a Space Lord; CO Home Fleet as an operational command is preferred.

7th Space Lord is definitely in the future for Fritz Montoya, although he would prefer to be Senior Medical Officer for a group of Fleet Hospital Ships.

-- Stewart

Given the Grand Aliance, does the space lord have to be manticorian, if not Alfredo Yu would work, also Honor would not take over as first space lord, that would put her to far from killing whoever got the current first space lord (and probably Hamish Alexander- Harrington as well as a meeting of all of the space lords would probably have him there to) for Manticorians, you could bring Sonja Hemphill back from Bolthole as she would probably the longest serving senior flag officer left.

saber964 wrote:
Not going to happen with HH getting First Space lord, that is a policy level command. Honor will bounce between fleet command and teaching e.g. CO of RMNA-SI or Intro and Advanced Tactics or CO ATC. If she does become a Space Lord it will be something like second or fourth

Good point of course. But policy may suffer a new precedent if all the Admiralty eggs are cracked at once. Necessity in the face of the current war with the League and the MAlign may present the mother of new invention.

Reminds me of the precedents set on Grayson, read from the history of Grayson concerning Honor Harrington, regarding the Steadholders accepting a female heir to their father's keys.

Aside:
I cannot remember the particulars of a passage that would be great for the favorite passages thread. It had something to do with Honor. Perhaps the problem above. Either Reverend Hanks or Protector Benjamin researched the history of Grayson and found centuries of a precedent that the Keys were trying to prevent. Can anyone remember that passage and what it was regarding?

BrigadeΔ wrote:Given the Grand Aliance, does the space lord have to be manticorian, if not Alfredo Yu would work, also Honor would not take over as first space lord, that would put her to far from killing whoever got the current first space lord (and probably Hamish Alexander- Harrington as well as a meeting of all of the space lords would probably have him there to) for Manticorians, you could bring Sonja Hemphill back from Bolthole as she would probably the longest serving senior flag officer left.

That's an excellent question Brigade. One that I wonder about myself. As we all know what Havenite could immediately replace Hemphill as Fourth Space Lord.

cthia wrote:

BrigadeΔ wrote:Given the Grand Aliance, does the space lord have to be manticorian, if not Alfredo Yu would work, also Honor would not take over as first space lord, that would put her to far from killing whoever got the current first space lord (and probably Hamish Alexander- Harrington as well as a meeting of all of the space lords would probably have him there to) for Manticorians, you could bring Sonja Hemphill back from Bolthole as she would probably the longest serving senior flag officer left.

That's an excellent question Brigade. One that I wonder about myself. As we all know what Havenite could immediately replace Hemphill as Fourth Space Lord.

Yes, since the Space Lords are legally established positions within the infrastructure of the Royal Manticoran Navy, and not task force or combined operational staff or command positions, they must be Manticoran officers. See HoS.

On the other hand, it is reasonable to presume that any of the operational command or staff positions could be assigned to an appropriately talented/experienced officer of any of the member navies, with the concurrence of the combined Chiefs of Staff of the Grand Alliance. See Allied combined command and staff selections of WWII for examples.

dreamrider

Cthia - given that HAMISH would be the First Space Lord that dies (currently), I doubt Honor would in any way let herself be shuffled off a flag deck until she had done something memorable (as in "people will tremble at their fate for a thousand years" memorable)to the people responsible if it happened. She can be a little determined on occasion, after all.

For Seventh Space Lord, the RMN could do worse than either Alfred Harrington (if they managed to recall him) or Fritz Montoya (if someone's feeling a little sadistic in a "good" way)

jchilds wrote:
Cthia - given that HAMISH would be the First Space Lord that dies (currently), I doubt Honor would in any way let herself be shuffled off a flag deck until she had done something memorable (as in "people will tremble at their fate for a thousand years" memorable)to the people responsible if it happened. She can be a little determined on occasion, after all.

For Seventh Space Lord, the RMN could do worse than either Alfred Harrington (if they managed to recall him) or Fritz Montoya (if someone's feeling a little sadistic in a "good" way)

Don't get me wrong. If I had anything to do with it, Honor would be on a flag deck until she was too old to swim the boarding tube. It's just that, if approached correctly, and laid out as a necessity and labelled as her kryptonite - "her duty ..." She just might.

-You don't call John Wayne a coward and not get a fight.
-You don't tell Victor Cachat the Sun causes him a shadow. Everyone knows even a shadow is too afraid to shadow Victor. Or he'd just stare the Sun down.
-You don't go to Harrington with desperation in your voice and make her think it's her duty and not expect she'd bite.
"Well, if you want one less than thrilled Salamander as First Space Lord, then I suppose you've got her."

Thing is, who else could do the job? Could perceive of the hard call to make? Then make it?

Besides, we're desperate here to stitch the command structure back together with the impending clash with the League and the MALign.

You can't just say Honor won't take the job, if you're having a hard time deciding who can.

Unless you don't think Honor can do the job?

Where would Henke fit as Space Lord? Surely Elizabeth would be thrilled to have her groundside.

Honor's previous Captain Bachfish could be rehabilitated and make an excellent Second Space Lord in a pinch.

And the entire Admiralty House of Lords wiped out, is a pinch. Maybe even a creaking vise.