The authorship and supervision of the postwar paper matter to its account of amphibious development. It was presented in 1946 with former First Sea Lord Lord Chatfield in the chair. Chatfield had repeatedly disagreed during the 1930s with Third Sea Lord Reginald Henderson, the officer responsible for construction and procurement. The resulting institutional history tended to write Henderson and his earlier work out of the story. This does not prove every detail of the Glen conversion program, but it explains why a polished official account may still give a misleadingly late starting date.
Notable Point · 14:37-15:35
How postwar institutional politics shaped the design record
The 1946 account was presented under Lord Chatfield, which matters because it minimized the role of procurement chief Reginald Henderson in 1930s development.