Punishment and the end of Tomkinson's active career

The account here describes jailed organizers and 400 discharges, divided between 200 sailors involved in the strike and 200 elsewhere in the Navy. Its relationship to the 24 men discharged on 20 November in Cunningham's earlier account is not explained. Ordinary barrack-room argument is distinguished here from attempts to impose a party-political programme inside a service expected to obey the democratically elected government. In this interpretation, the purge enforced discipline and gave the Navy an opportunity to remove personnel it already considered troublesome. Debate continued over Tomkinson's refusal to punish immediately and force the fleet to sea. Some senior officers believed a rapid sortie would have prevented escalation, while Tomkinson faced a situation in which force might instead have widened the mutiny. He became a vice admiral but was placed on half pay, retired in 1935, and returned only for limited Bristol Channel work during World War II.