John Knox Laughton

Sir John Knox Laughton (born April 23, 1830 in Liverpool , † September 14, 1915 ) was a British naval historian.

Laughton was the son of a captain. He graduated from Cambridge University ( Gonville and Caius College ) where he became Wrangler on the Tripos math exams. He then went to the Royal Navy , served in the Crimean War and the Opium War and was from 1866 at the Royal Naval College in Portsmouth . There he wrote textbooks on meteorology and nautical science and in 1873 became head of the meteorology department at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich (London) . From 1876 he also taught naval history. In 1885 he became Professor of Modern History at King's College London .

He was one of the founders of the Navy Records Society with his friend Admiral Cyprian Bridge (1839-1924) and until 1912 its secretary.

Knox wrote over 900 entries in the Dictionary of National Biography , including almost all those related to naval history.

In 1907 he was knighted as a Knight Bachelor . In 1910 he received the Chesney Gold Medal from the Royal United Services Institute .

His daughter Vera Laughton Matthews (1888–1959) was director of the Woman's Royal Naval Service from 1939 to 1947.

Fonts

Essay on Naval Tactics, 1873
The Scientific Study of Naval History, 1874
Published in: State Papers relating to the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Navy Records Society, No. 1, 2, 1894
Editors: Letters and Papers of Charles, Lord Barham, 1758–1813, Navy Records Society, No. 32, 38, 39
Editor with R. Vesey Hamilton: The Recollections of Commander James Anthony Gardner, 1775–1814, Navy Records Society, no. 31
Nelson and his companions in arms, London: Allen and Unwin 1941
Nelson, Macmillan 1904
Frustration of the plan for the escape of Napoleon Bonaparte from Bordeaux, London 1912
Defeat of the Spanish Armada anno 1588, 2 volumes, New York 1971
Publisher: Seizure of Helgoland 1807, 1907
Studies in naval history: Biographies, London: Longmans, Green 1887, Conway Maritime Press 1970
Sea fight and adventures, London, G. Allen 1901
Editor: Memoirs of the life and correspondence of Henry Reeve, 2 volumes, Longmans, Green 1898
Editors: Letters and despatches of Horatio, viscount Nelson, KB, duke of Bronte, vice-admiral of the White squadron, London, Longmans, Green 1886
Published by: From Howard to Nelson: twelve sailors, London 1899

Andrew Lambert : The Foundations of Naval History: John Knox Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession , Chatham Publ. 1998
Andrew Lambert (Ed.): Letters and Papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton , Naval Records Society Publ. 143, 2002;