The news that First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Ben Key, the head of the Royal Navy, has stepped down from his job while claims of an alleged affair with a junior female officer are investigated, have come as a shock. The armed forces have been relatively free of the sex scandals that have become so common in politics since the Second World War.
Sir Ben, a 59-year -old married father of three, has made no comment on the subject , and his duties have been taken over by Vice Admiral Sir Martin Connell, his deputy. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Defence has confirmed that he has stood aside for ‘private reasons’. It is the first time in the Navy’s five centuries of existence that its first sea lord has faced a misconduct inquiry.
The armed forces have been relatively free of the sex scandals that have become so common in politics since the Second World War
Despite Winston Churchill’s jibe that the only traditions of the Navy are ‘rum, sodomy, and the lash’ discipline in the senior service is so tight, and life in close quarters at sea so open to observation, that affairs or even brief encounters would soon be impossible to keep secret. Churchill had been First Lord of the Admiralty in charge of the Navy at the beginning of both world wars and should have known whereof he spoke, but he couldn’t resist a clever witticism overriding the truth.
Human nature being what it is, occasional breaches of discipline will occur. If they are between a senior officer and other ranks, these are taken very seriously and treated with great severity as they can undermine the trust between all ranks and lead to favouritism and jealousy which would destroy the flawless efficiency so essential to the smooth running of ships at sea.
The Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens) first formed in 1917, became a vital part of the Navy onshore in both world wars, but for fairly obvious reasons, the idea of young women serving on board ships was strongly resisted among the more traditionally minded upper ranks of the Navy, and only came about as recently as 1993 during John Major’s otherwise inglorious premiership.
Superstitious tradition held that women aboard warships brought bad luck. Although such a superstition is obviously nonsense, there are still some recaltricent male sailors who remain uncomfortable with the idea of women at sea.
Allegations of affairs between officers and lower ranking women have been much more frequent in the Army, and have led to several tragic cases of young female soldiers taking their lives after alleged abuse and bullying by men holding the power of rank over them.
Even so, cases of abuse by very senior ranks have been an almost unknown rarity since Major General Sir Hector MacDonald , a humbly born Scottish hero of the Boer War, known as ‘Fighting Mac’, was accused in 1903 of having group sex in a railway carriage with Sinhalese teenage youths while he was posted in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. MacDonald was summoned home, where he was reportedly advised by King Edward VII to shoot himself.
En route back to Ceylon to face a court martial while staying at the Hotel Regina in Paris, the General did just that.
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