Retaining too many captains and commanders in a shrinking fleet would have blocked promotion throughout the officer corps. Retirements under the Geddes Axe created room for younger officers to advance instead of filling shore posts or placing four-ring captains in ordinary destroyers. The Royal Navy preferred flotilla leaders under captains and individual destroyers under commanders or lieutenant commanders. That personnel structure reinforced a force culture built around relatively junior, ambitious, and aggressive destroyer captains.
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The Geddes Axe also shaped who commanded interwar destroyers
Reducing senior officers after World War I saved money and kept promotion moving, while leaving destroyer commands in the hands of younger officers.