As this book has shown the common conception that ‘Churchill’s “radical phase” was cast to the winds’ when he was put in charge of the Navy in October 1911, although well established in the literature, is not, in fact, accurate.1 The radical President of the Board of Trade, eager to improve the lives of the poor, became the radical Home Secretary, no less enthusiastic for social reform, who then became the radical First Lord of the Admiralty, imbued with both a desire and, perhaps more importantly, a will to intervene in order to better conditions for those who served in the Royal Navy. Accordingly, he embarked upon a major programme of improvement across a wide range of different areas all of which affected the everyday life of sailors. Alcohol intake, sexual behaviour, religious practice, corporal punishment, as well as pay and equality of progression, all came under the spotlight while Churchill was First Lord. Of course, not all of the new measures were successful and not all were progressive in the modern understanding of the term, but all of them represented significant attempts to push forward a radical agenda for change....
Review of 'Rum, Sodomy, Prayers, and the Lash Revisited: Winston Churchill and Social Reform in the Royal Navy, 1900-1915'