Themes

Article Highlights

• Introduction

• The Loyal Appeal

• The characters of change

• The Brock Committee

• World War One
  

• The Jerram Committee

The Jerram Committee

Although sailors made no further 'Appeals', the Admiralty realised by late 1918 that the whole matter of pay, allowances and pensions was in need a major over-haul. No doubt the end of the war permitted this financially and in January 1919 it duly set up the Jerram Committee. Almost simultaneously a group of delegates from the lower-deck societies met in the presence of the press and drew up a list of 20 pay-related requests. The committee was quick to react and merely 3 weeks after it had convened they announced that the Admiralty was able to announce an interim increase in pay. This would take the pressure off whilst the Committee investigated pay, allowances and pensions.

There was a great deal of discussion over the findings of the Jerram Committee when it submitted its report in 1919. The results were:

• Pay rose by between 50 to 80%.

• The basic pay of an Able Seaman with less than 3 years service but with a qualification (specialisation) of Seaman Gunner was brought into line with that of a married Able Seaman (with 2 children under the age of 14).

• In 1914 the daily rate of pay for the single man had been 1s11d. With the increase awarded by the Jerram Committee, this rose to 4s per day in 1919.

Letter from G. Kingsford, President of the Portsmouth Branch of the Victualling Department, thanking Lionel Yexley for his contribution to the Jerram Committee (RNM)

The pay increases recommended by the Jerram Committee in 1919 brought what is probably the most important period of reforms for the Lower Deck of the Royal Navy to a close. It had seen major changes in the feeding, clothing, paying and treatment of the sailors who fought in the First World War: arguably the first since the Spithead and Nore Mutinies of 1797. They were long over-due, though it is clear that a number of them particularly the improvements to cooking, where new infrastructure and training was needed, took some time to introduce.