Admiral Sir Reginald Neville Custance, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., C.V.O., D.C.L. (OXON), Royal Navy (20 September 1847 – 30 August 1935).
Custance was born in Belfast on 20 September, 1847, the eldest son of General William Neville Custance, by his second wife, Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas Meggison, of Walton, Northumberland. He entered the Royal Navy in 1860, being appointed to HMS Britannia at Portsmouth.
He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on 6 February 1868.
Custance was promoted to the rank of Commander with seniority of 31 March 1878.
He was promoted to the rank of Captain with seniority of 31 December 1885.
He served as the Naval Attaché at Washington in 1894, when he helped evaluate the Howell Torpedo at the Hotchkiss Company's works at Tiverton, Rhode Island.
Custance was appointed in command of the second class battleship Barfleur on 26 February 1895.
He was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria on 16 September 1897.
As Director of Naval Intelligence, a Marine officer considered that he was not "a very inspiring leader" because of "his somewhat suspicious nature."
He was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral with seniority of 1 August 1899.
For his services in Crete, on 1 January 1900 Custance was appointed CMG.
On the occasion of the King's visit to Malta Custance was appointed a CVO on 21 April 1903.
Custance was promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral on 20 October 1904.
On the occasion of the King's birthday he was appointed an Ordinary Member of the Second Class, or Knight Commander, in the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (KCMG) on 9 November 1904.
In late 1907 the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Tweedmouth, offered Custance the command of either the Plymouth (Devonport) or China Stations. He refused the former as being"of such little importance that I should not consider it my duty to accept it," and stated that 'unless there is something exceptional in the condition of affairs in the Far East I should prefer not to go to China but to remain in my present post for the two years mentioned when I received the appointment'.
Upon Tweedmouth's departure from the Admiralty in 1908 Custance wrote to him, and rather than just sympathise launched into a tract on naval affairs: 'My opposition to the Admiralty has been professional and not political and I have always recognised and sympathised with the difficulties against what both your Lordship and Mr. Robertson had to contend.
Several of the points for which I have been contending have been already accepted, but I fear the evil effects of the policy initiated by the administration preceding will not be eradicated for many years.
The ruinous financial effect of the shipbuilding policy initiated by the Dreadnought and Invincible will remain as also will the pernicious influence on the minds of the rising generation of, as I believe, wrong strategical and tactical conceptions.
You will be glad to view these questions from a distance in future I venture to think.'
On 18 May 1908 he was promoted to the rank of Admiral. On the occasion of the King's birthday he was appointed an Ordinary Member of the Second Class, or Knight Commander, of the Military Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (KCB) on 26 June.
Despite his longstanding emnity towards Custance, Lord Fisher suggested offering him the Devonport command again in a letter to newly-appointed First Lord Winston Churchill in 1911, calling it a "d—ed good thing" for him.
In accordance with the provisions of the Order in Council of 22 February 1870 he was placed on the Retired List on 20 September 1912.
On the occasion of the King's birthday he was appointed an Ordinary Member of the First Class, or Knight Grand Cross, in the Military Division of the Order of the Bath (GCB) on 3 June 1913.
He died at Broadclyst, Devon on 30 August, 1935 and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium on 4 September.
His obituary in The Times said:
Though modest and retiring in demeanour, he impressed all who knew him with a sense of power, capacity, and leadership, and he never failed to secure the affectionate regard and admiration of all who served with or under him. He had always good reasons to give for the opinions he held so stoutly, which were obviously based on a rare mastery of the professional and other topics he discussed.