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The loneliness of leadership

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Elaine Chalus discusses the loneliness of leadership experienced by active Royal Navy officers during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, specifically captains and admirals, who not only were often away from their loved ones for years at a time but were also, as a result of the increasingly rigid, hierarchical structure of the Royal Navy, set apart professionally, socially and psychologically from their subordinates.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 12, 2024

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This video video discusses an essay that is part of a broader exploration of the history of loneliness, particularly in the context of British naval officers during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The author reflects on their research into the Fremantle Papers, which reveal the loneliness experienced by naval officers who were often separated from their families for extended periods due to the demands of naval service.

Key points include:
1. **Loneliness in Historical Context**: The author notes a lack of historical writing on the topic of loneliness, especially prior to the 19th century, despite its prevalence during wartime.
2. **Separation and Loneliness**: Officers faced personal loneliness due to prolonged absences from family, compounded by difficulties in communication, such as delayed or lost letters.
3. **Professional Loneliness**: As naval officers ascended the ranks, they experienced a form of professional loneliness due to social hierarchy, leading to reduced interactions with peers and subordinates.
4. **Social Isolation**: As captains and admirals spent long periods at sea, they often lacked the camaraderie common among lower-ranked crew members, leading to both personal and professional isolation.
5. **Role of Letters**: Personal letters served as vital connections to home, offering emotional support amidst isolation.
6. **Motivations for Service**: Despite the loneliness, many officers felt a strong sense of duty and patriotism, choosing to serve out of commitment rather than for personal gain alone. Some pursued naval careers for potential rewards or to secure a comfortable future post-service.

Overall, the essay emphasizes the dual aspects of loneliness experienced by naval officers—personal and professional—and the enduring value of connection to home through correspondence during periods of separation.

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00:00.315 --> 00:04.485
This, particular essay comes out of a book,

00:04.825 --> 00:06.525
on the history of loneliness.

00:07.305 --> 00:11.045
And it, it's part of a much bigger collection of essays

00:11.045 --> 00:12.645
that, we had put together, a number

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of us had put together, and it, it, it developed

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because of the fact

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that I had been working on the Fremantle Papers.

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This is a family set of papers looking at the, a family,

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who had, a naval captain later admiral,

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during the Revolution, French Revolutionary Napoleonic Wars.

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And one of the things that I picked up on very quickly when

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I was reading through their, their correspondence

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was the fact that they were apart

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for years at a time over the course of the war,

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as people are, you know, through various wars.

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And that there was a, a, an, an ongoing thread

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of loneliness throughout this and how they addressed it.

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And yet, when I was looking at the history,

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we had very little history written about loneliness and,

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and sort of trying to historicize something that like that.

01:00.865 --> 01:04.565
Um, most of the work that's was, had been done, failed.

01:04.825 --> 01:07.205
Fay bound Alberti had talked about loneliness as a,

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an emotional cluster,

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but basically set it sort of 19th century.

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And of course, the mid majority

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of modern work thinks about it as pathological,

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often psychological, but pathological.

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And it attributes it to the atomization of society in a,

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in a post age.

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And I was picking up on, on things

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that were much earlier than that.

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And so it was part of a much bigger study, to look at

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what we could find out about loneliness

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and the way it was expressed.

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Prior to the 19th century.

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There are many, royal naval officers.

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I was looking specifically, and,

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and maybe I should step back one step first

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and say that, the French

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and Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,

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we are looking at Britain being at war from about 1793,

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almost consistently through to 1815.

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There's a short interval for the peace of am yen

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between 1802 and 1803,

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but effectively, we're at war

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for a very long period of time.

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And the na and the Royal Navy is central

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to the protection of, of, of England,

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but also central to the, the control of the oceans

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and the attempt to, to control

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and effectively defeat France.

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Uh, one of its main tactics is blockading

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and preventing the, the French fleet from getting out.

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Um, the people I was looking at were,

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largely captains or later admirals of the fleet.

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This particular essay,

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looked specifically at Captain Sir Edward, Coddington,

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Admiral Lord, Collingwood, Cuthbert Collingwood,

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who is, Admiral Lord Nelson's second in command at

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Judge Alger.

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And one of the, the young hot shots of, of the,

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the Royal Navy, captain William host.

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And those were the key people I was looking at

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because I had, collections of their, their papers

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and their letters that I could access.

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And it, it gave me a really

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interesting insight to these people.

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It's also, it was important

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because as captains are admirals, they're,

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they're, they're divided sort of,

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hierarchically socially

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and professionally from the men below them.

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Um, the higher up you go hierarchically,

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the more you could be, divided in terms

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of Royal Navy was developing, just in terms

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of social status and hierarchy, deference, all of that.

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And so consequently, they were in particular positions

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of leadership, but they were also in particular positions

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where, because of their situation, they were appointed

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for three year stints at a time.

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It might have been, away for much longer.

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Um, Cuthbert Collingwood, for instance, is away from 1803

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until his death in 1810.

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You know, these are long, long periods away at sea

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where you have minimal sometimes interactions with people

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who are your inferiors, in, in terms of work,

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and perhaps have, have limited contact with your,

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your, your equals.

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It brings its own kinds of loneliness, is really

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what I started to try and engage with.

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This builds on what I've already been saying.

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Um, what do you find this is in, in the Napoleonic period?

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Um, contact with ships at sea,

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although it is getting much better, is still slow,

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and there's still, many, many opportunities for letters

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that are being sent from loved ones to be mislaid.

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Um, miss sent Misdirected lost at Sea, you know,

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ending up in a huge pile of letters so someone could get up

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to perhaps 14 letters at a time,

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but not hear from family for months and months at a time.

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Um, so consequently, there's, there's difficulties that way.

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Uh, as, as I was saying, the, the appointments were

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for about three years at a time usually,

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and while, while officers

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and their ships might come back into the port

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to do a quick refit or to restock,

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and in some families that meant, for instance,

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with the Fremantles in my earlier work,

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Betsy Fremantle would get a,

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a letter from her husband saying, you know, I'm going

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to be in port at such

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and such a time, you know, basically,

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can you come down to meet me?

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And she would grab a coach

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and whatever small children there were, and a,

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and a couple of servants,

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and go post-haste to the, to the,

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coast to the South Coast.

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This gets more and more difficult

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as you are moving on in time through the Napoleonic Wars

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because we've got increasing idea of, of wanting

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to do fast refits, keeping the captains on board

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and keeping the, so the sailors, if at all possible,

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on board as much as possible too,

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because of course, that prevents desertion.

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So there isn't this much chance to get away as the, the,

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the wars go on.

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So they, the, the people

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who are coming in may not get the chance

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to actually come back to see their, their wives or,

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or their children for extended periods of time.

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So you've got that degree of personal loneliness,

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and as I said, as well, you have a degree

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of professional loneliness because of the, the nature

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and the hierarchy of the, the Royal Navy as it's developing

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and professionalizing in this period.

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Um, so the ideal, kind of mess room antics

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and mess room camaraderie, bon homi, the lower ranks isn't,

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that isn't going to be there when you get up to,

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the captains and the admirals.

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And if you've got a very good admiral

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or a very good captain who's really very extroverted

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and very social, there will be opportunities

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to dine and to meet together.

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Um, but that's not the case in all in, in all cases.

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And of course, if you're away at sea, various circumstances,

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you may not have that opportunity anyway.

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So there are professional problems as well as personal ones.

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The Royal Naval officers dealt with two kinds of loneliness.

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There was personal loneliness and professional loneliness.

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And personal loneliness is, really looking at the kind

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of lack of personal social interaction of family contact,

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of contact with friends

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and loved ones, that, they would have had,

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had they been in a different job at home.

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But it also meant that they didn't have the kind of

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of simple, peer socialization that would've been,

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perhaps the norm in other positions of leadership.

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Uh, if you're a c all the time, you simply aren't going

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to get a chance to meet as often with your,

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your peer captains

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or peer admirals as you would,

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if you were in a different kind of position

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and if you were based elsewhere.

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So personal loneliness is, is very much around that lack of,

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of of social interaction, lack of confidants, lack

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of close friendship,

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and even the ability to, to be known that you're,

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you're useful to someone, that kind of thing.

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The professional loneliness is very much more as,

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an indication of what's going on

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with the profession itself in that captains

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and admirals particularly, miss out on the kind

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of mess room camaraderie, the Bon Ho Me

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that you would have as a, a young midshipman perhaps,

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or a, a junior officer where everyone messes together.

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Um, the, the increasing professionalization

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of the Royal Navy in set up, a hierarchy of status

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where the lower, officers were expected

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to be deferential to their superiors.

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And consequently, you might have, a captain

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or an admiral spending much of his time on his own

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social time when he wasn't actually on watch,

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and only the more extroverted having people into Dine.

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And even then there would be a, a, a, a division in terms of

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how they, how they socialized with them.

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So loneliness at a professional level

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when they could get together with their peers.

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But when they were on their own, which is often, you know,

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heading their ships, that position

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of leadership was very much one that put them in a position

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where they could be very lonely and could quite cut off.

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Okay. There's some conclusions, and, implications.

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Well, one of the things that, we know coming out

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of this is that letters, personal letters,

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the contact with home was absolutely crucial

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and very much valued.

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And letters were really, really useful

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because they were not only a way to create a fictional,

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ongoing conversation with family members,

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but they were also, visible and tangible.

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Um, mementos of the were missing

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because they were actually physical.

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You could touch them, you could look

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again and again at the writing.

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So having that kind

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of ongoing correspondence really, really mattered.

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And so that's one of the things that comes out of it.

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The other thing is, one of the questions I was,

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I was looking at is why do these people do it?

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You know, why are they, why are they out there?

10:14.995 --> 10:18.415
You know? Uh, and they could potentially have, by some

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of them, by the time that they're at, at levels of admirals

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and whatnot, might have been able to, to opt for a,

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the equivalent almost of a desk job in some cases.

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And largely what we find out is they're there

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for a variety of reasons.

10:32.635 --> 10:36.495
Um, most of them are incredibly dedicated.

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They have very strong sense of duty,

10:38.555 --> 10:40.895
and they have a very strong sense of patriotism.

10:41.435 --> 10:45.215
And so the fact that they are, they are there sometimes

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for prize money, you know, young,

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young guy who's on the make

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and is interested in getting, you know, status and,

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and, you know, public awareness

10:53.915 --> 10:55.335
and, you know, some adulation

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and the, you know, the royal naval captains

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and whatnot become heroes of that, this period.

11:00.515 --> 11:02.935
So there's some of that, but you can't guarantee you're

11:02.935 --> 11:05.735
gonna get prize money and, and catch prizes and, and,

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and, you know, be a great, William host character.

11:09.295 --> 11:12.855
A lot of it really is about, about looking

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and believing in the fight that they were involved in,

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feeling very strongly that they should have,

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they had a sense of duty, a sense of, of,

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commitment to the country.

11:25.555 --> 11:29.335
And also there's a degree of personal reasons for it

11:29.335 --> 11:30.335
that's slightly different,

11:30.595 --> 11:34.775
and that is perhaps that they saw this period as going

11:34.775 --> 11:36.455
to be time limited in some ways.

11:36.635 --> 11:37.815
And it would give them,

11:38.165 --> 11:39.935
they hope they would anyway, if they survived.

11:40.515 --> 11:43.775
Um, it would give them the opportunity to then be able

11:43.775 --> 11:48.655
to go back home, live perhaps as gentlemen set themselves up

11:48.725 --> 11:52.935
with their, with their families and lead the kinds of lives

11:53.225 --> 11:54.925
In terms of, financial

11:55.465 --> 11:56.885
and just in terms of comfort

11:57.275 --> 11:59.325
that they might not have been able to do otherwise.

11:59.425 --> 12:01.445
So there's a personal reason for what they're doing,

12:01.665 --> 12:05.325
but that personal reason is very strongly underlined

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and in reinforced by a patriotic and dutiful reason.

12:09.525 --> 12:09.645
I.

00:00 - This, particular essay comes out of a book, on the history of loneliness. And it, it's part of a much bigger collection of essays that, we had put together, a number of us had put together, and it, it, it developed because of the fact

00:16 - that I had been working on the Fremantle Papers. This is a family set of papers looking at the, a family, who had, a naval captain later admiral, during the Revolution, French Revolutionary Napoleonic Wars. And one of the things that I picked up on very quickly when I was reading through their, their correspondence was the fact that they were apart for years at a time over the course of the war, as people are, you know, through various wars. And that there was a, a, an, an ongoing thread

00:48 - of loneliness throughout this and how they addressed it. And yet, when I was looking at the history, we had very little history written about loneliness and, and sort of trying to historicize something that like that. most of the work that's was, had been done, failed. Fay bound Alberti had talked about loneliness as a, an emotional cluster, but basically set it sort of 19th century. And of course, the mid majority of modern work thinks about it as pathological,

01:16 - often psychological, but pathological. And it attributes it to the atomization of society in a, in a post age. And I was picking up on, on things that were much earlier than that. And so it was part of a much bigger study, to look at what we could find out about loneliness and the way it was expressed. Prior to the 19th century. There are many, royal naval officers.

01:41 - I was looking specifically, and, and maybe I should step back one step first and say that, the French and Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, we are looking at Britain being at war from about 1793, almost consistently through to 1815. There's a short interval for the peace of am yen between 1802 and 1803, but effectively, we're at war for a very long period of time.

02:07 - And the na and the Royal Navy is central to the protection of, of, of England, but also central to the, the control of the oceans and the attempt to, to control and effectively defeat France. one of its main tactics is blockading and preventing the, the French fleet from getting out. the people I was looking at were, largely captains or later admirals of the fleet. This particular essay,

02:37 - looked specifically at Captain Sir Edward, Coddington, Admiral Lord, Collingwood, Cuthbert Collingwood, who is, Admiral Lord Nelson's second in command at Judge Alger. And one of the, the young hot shots of, of the, the Royal Navy, captain William host. And those were the key people I was looking at because I had, collections of their, their papers and their letters that I could access. And it, it gave me a really

03:11 - interesting insight to these people. It's also, it was important because as captains are admirals, they're, they're, they're divided sort of, hierarchically socially and professionally from the men below them. the higher up you go hierarchically, the more you could be, divided in terms of Royal Navy was developing, just in terms of social status and hierarchy, deference, all of that.

03:40 - And so consequently, they were in particular positions of leadership, but they were also in particular positions where, because of their situation, they were appointed for three year stints at a time. It might have been, away for much longer. Cuthbert Collingwood, for instance, is away from 1803 until his death in 1810. You know, these are long, long periods away at sea where you have minimal sometimes interactions with people who are your inferiors, in, in terms of work,

04:09 - and perhaps have, have limited contact with your, your, your equals. It brings its own kinds of loneliness, is really what I started to try and engage with. This builds on what I've already been saying. what do you find this is in, in the Napoleonic period? contact with ships at sea, although it is getting much better, is still slow, and there's still, many, many opportunities for letters that are being sent from loved ones to be mislaid.

04:39 - miss sent Misdirected lost at Sea, you know, ending up in a huge pile of letters so someone could get up to perhaps 14 letters at a time, but not hear from family for months and months at a time. so consequently, there's, there's difficulties that way. as, as I was saying, the, the appointments were for about three years at a time usually, and while, while officers and their ships might come back into the port to do a quick refit or to restock,

05:14 - and in some families that meant, for instance, with the Fremantles in my earlier work, Betsy Fremantle would get a, a letter from her husband saying, you know, I'm going to be in port at such and such a time, you know, basically, can you come down to meet me? And she would grab a coach and whatever small children there were, and a, and a couple of servants,

05:32 - and go post-haste to the, to the, coast to the South Coast. This gets more and more difficult as you are moving on in time through the Napoleonic Wars because we've got increasing idea of, of wanting to do fast refits, keeping the captains on board and keeping the, so the sailors, if at all possible, on board as much as possible too, because of course, that prevents desertion. So there isn't this much chance to get away as the, the,

05:59 - the wars go on. So they, the, the people who are coming in may not get the chance to actually come back to see their, their wives or, or their children for extended periods of time. So you've got that degree of personal loneliness, and as I said, as well, you have a degree of professional loneliness because of the, the nature and the hierarchy of the, the Royal Navy as it's developing and professionalizing in this period.

06:24 - so the ideal, kind of mess room antics and mess room camaraderie, bon homi, the lower ranks isn't, that isn't going to be there when you get up to, the captains and the admirals. And if you've got a very good admiral or a very good captain who's really very extroverted and very social, there will be opportunities to dine and to meet together. but that's not the case in all in, in all cases. And of course, if you're away at sea, various circumstances,

06:55 - you may not have that opportunity anyway. So there are professional problems as well as personal ones. The Royal Naval officers dealt with two kinds of loneliness. There was personal loneliness and professional loneliness. And personal loneliness is, really looking at the kind of lack of personal social interaction of family contact, of contact with friends and loved ones, that, they would have had, had they been in a different job at home. But it also meant that they didn't have the kind of

07:29 - of simple, peer socialization that would've been, perhaps the norm in other positions of leadership. if you're a c all the time, you simply aren't going to get a chance to meet as often with your, your peer captains or peer admirals as you would, if you were in a different kind of position and if you were based elsewhere. So personal loneliness is, is very much around that lack of, of of social interaction, lack of confidants, lack

07:58 - of close friendship, and even the ability to, to be known that you're, you're useful to someone, that kind of thing. The professional loneliness is very much more as, an indication of what's going on with the profession itself in that captains and admirals particularly, miss out on the kind of mess room camaraderie, the Bon Ho Me that you would have as a, a young midshipman perhaps, or a, a junior officer where everyone messes together.

08:28 - the, the increasing professionalization of the Royal Navy in set up, a hierarchy of status where the lower, officers were expected to be deferential to their superiors. And consequently, you might have, a captain or an admiral spending much of his time on his own social time when he wasn't actually on watch, and only the more extroverted having people into Dine. And even then there would be a, a, a, a division in terms of how they, how they socialized with them.

09:03 - So loneliness at a professional level when they could get together with their peers. But when they were on their own, which is often, you know, heading their ships, that position of leadership was very much one that put them in a position where they could be very lonely and could quite cut off. Okay. There's some conclusions, and, implications. Well, one of the things that, we know coming out of this is that letters, personal letters, the contact with home was absolutely crucial

09:36 - and very much valued. And letters were really, really useful because they were not only a way to create a fictional, ongoing conversation with family members, but they were also, visible and tangible. mementos of the were missing because they were actually physical. You could touch them, you could look again and again at the writing. So having that kind

10:03 - of ongoing correspondence really, really mattered. And so that's one of the things that comes out of it. The other thing is, one of the questions I was, I was looking at is why do these people do it? You know, why are they, why are they out there? You know? and they could potentially have, by some of them, by the time that they're at, at levels of admirals and whatnot, might have been able to, to opt for a, the equivalent almost of a desk job in some cases. And largely what we find out is they're there

10:30 - for a variety of reasons. most of them are incredibly dedicated. They have very strong sense of duty, and they have a very strong sense of patriotism. And so the fact that they are, they are there sometimes for prize money, you know, young, young guy who's on the make and is interested in getting, you know, status and, and, you know, public awareness and, you know, some adulation

10:55 - and the, you know, the royal naval captains and whatnot become heroes of that, this period. So there's some of that, but you can't guarantee you're gonna get prize money and, and catch prizes and, and, and, you know, be a great, William host character. A lot of it really is about, about looking and believing in the fight that they were involved in, feeling very strongly that they should have, they had a sense of duty, a sense of, of, commitment to the country.

11:25 - And also there's a degree of personal reasons for it that's slightly different, and that is perhaps that they saw this period as going to be time limited in some ways. And it would give them, they hope they would anyway, if they survived. it would give them the opportunity to then be able to go back home, live perhaps as gentlemen set themselves up with their, with their families and lead the kinds of lives In terms of, financial

11:55 - and just in terms of comfort that they might not have been able to do otherwise. So there's a personal reason for what they're doing, but that personal reason is very strongly underlined and in reinforced by a patriotic and dutiful reason. I.

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