Julian Corbett

Sir Julian Stafford Corbett (12 November 1854 at Walcot House, Kennington Road, Lambeth – 21 September 1922 at Manor Farm, Stopham, Pulborough, Sussex) was a prominent British naval historian and geostrategist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, whose works helped shape the Royal Navy's reforms of that era. One of his most famous works is Some Principles of Maritime Strategy, which remains a classic among students of naval warfare. Corbett was a good friend and ally of naval reformer Admiral John "Jacky" Fisher, the First Sea Lord. He was chosen to write the official history of British naval operations during World War I.

The son of a London architect and property developer, Charles Joseph Corbett, who owned among other properties Imber Court at Weston Green, Thames Ditton, where he made the family home, Julian Corbett was educated at Marlborough College (1869–73) and at Trinity College, Cambridge (1873–76), where he took a first class honours degree in law. Corbett became a barrister at Middle Temple in 1877 and practised until 1882 when he turned to writing as a career. Fascinated by the Elizabethan period, he first wrote historical novels set in this era. He became a correspondent for the Pall Mall Gazette, and reported on the Dongola Expedition in 1896. Corbett came to naval history in mid-life and from a civilian background. He was a man of independent means who traveled extensively.^{[citation needed]}

Julian Corbett had three brothers, Herbert E. (1876–??), Edward M. (1899–??) and Frank E. (1881–??). In 1899 he married Edith Alexander, daughter of George Alexander. They had one son and one daughter.^{[citation needed]}

In 1896 Corbett accepted John Knox Laughton's request to edit a volume of documents on the Spanish war, 1585–87 which served as the start of his career as a naval historian. He soon became known as one of the Royal Navy's leading intellectuals, and from 1901 to 1922 was writing regularly on naval history and strategy. In 1902 he began lecturing at the Royal Naval College, founded in 1900. In 1903 he gave the Ford Lectures in English History at Oxford University. In 1905 he became the Admiralty's chief unofficial strategic adviser and served as secretary of the Cabinet Historical Office. He was awarded the Chesney Gold Medal in 1914, and knighted in 1917.

Like his American contemporary, Rear Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan of the U.S. Navy, Corbett saw naval warfare as part of a nation's larger policies. In this respect, Prussian military thinker Carl von Clausewitz was an important influence on his work. Another major influence was John Knox Laughton, arguably the first naval historian, and Corbett has been described as his 'protégé'. Corbett differed from Mahan, however, in placing less emphasis on fleet battle. This stance angered many officers in the Royal Navy, who believed such a view lacked the heroic aspect of Lord Nelson's strategy in the Napoleonic Wars.

Corbett's primary objective was to fill the void in British naval doctrine by formalizing the theories and principles of naval warfare. The strategies of naval warfare by Corbett focused on the art of naval warfare and defined the differences between land warfare and naval warfare. He set the initial focus towards the employment of manoeuvre type doctrine. Corbett's principles of sea control, focus on the enemy, and manoeuvre for tactical advantage form the foundation of today's naval manoeuvre warfare.

Corbett was working from within the naval community and trying to influence the naval establishment. He believed in studying and developing the theory of war for educational purposes, which he felt established a "common vehicle of expression and a common plane of thought… for the sake of mental solidarity between a chief and his subordinates". Through his lectures at the Naval War College, Corbett was trying to convey to the attending flag officers his ideas of limited war and strategic defence which were very different from the accepted norms of naval theory and strategy of the time. Through his publication of Some Principles of Maritime Strategy (1911), Corbett was trying to expand the audience for his strategies and teachings to include the general public.

At the turn of the century Corbett emerged as one of the first authors in the development of modern naval doctrine. Drawing from the influences of Baron de Jomini and Carl von Clausewitz, he was instrumental in attempting to apply the existing theories of land warfare for war at sea. Clausewitz's On War was an invaluable basis and stimulus for Corbett's theoretical work, but it was not his blueprint. For example, Corbett did not hesitate to take issue with Clausewitz, Jomini, or other continental strategists on the importance of the search for the decisive battle and the principle of concentration. The fact that Corbett believed these factors to be far less relevant at sea was a daring departure from the accepted wisdom of his time. In developing his theory of limited war, Corbett again used On War as his point of departure but ended up with his own, unique method of waging a limited war in a maritime environment.