If other candidates were operationally stable, why should seniority decide who commanded the Battlecruiser Fleet?
Short answerBecause the Royal Navy expected a powerful detached force to be led by a vice admiral senior enough to carry independent authority.
NotesPersonal suitability was only part of the Royal Navy's concern, since seniority also mattered. If rank did not matter, Commodore Tyrwhitt's experience commanding the independent Harwich Force would make him an obvious operational candidate. The Battlecruiser Fleet was too powerful and too visibly independent, however, to be sent out under a newly promoted or relatively junior rear admiral. The Falklands task-force structure offers a comparison: the rank sent forward also shaped institutional risk and the credit attached to success. Seniority therefore functioned as a signal of authority as well as a place in the promotion list.