Would naval reform have continued without Fisher?

Would the Royal Navy still have built Dreadnought first if Jacky Fisher had never entered the service?

Possibly, because the same career pressures could have elevated another reformer, though that officer might have been steadier and less innovative than Fisher.

Jacky Fisher both shaped his offices and was shaped by the appointments and crises through which he rose. Removing him would not remove those events or the pool of other officers able to occupy the same posts. Another reformer might therefore have pushed the Royal Navy toward similar changes, although it remains uncertain whether Britain would still have launched Dreadnought first. A substitute could have been steadier and more consistently productive, but perhaps less capable of Fisher's leaps of genius.