Prince Louis of Battenberg - Commander

Commander

On his penultimate day aboard the Queen's yacht, 30 August 1885, Louis was promoted to the rank of commander. The next four years were spent in the shore establishments HMS Excellent and HMS Vernon on half-pay, on HMS Cambridge, very briefly at Milford Haven in August 1886, and onboard HMS Dreadnought in the Mediterranean. Irish nationalist MP Willie Redmond and Liberal MP Charles Conybeare both questioned Battenberg's appointment to Dreadnought in the British House of Commons. Conybeare asked, "what special qualifications have entitled a foreigner to be promoted over the heads of some 30 British officers?" First Lord of the Admiralty Lord George Hamilton said, "Captain Stephenson, who commands the Dreadnought, applied for Prince Louis of Battenberg to fill the appointment. I may add that another officer who is about to command a large iron-clad in the Mediterranean has made a similar application." He added that 22 commanders junior to Battenberg held similar appointments, and that Battenberg was a naturalised British subject. Another Liberal MP, Edward Pickersgill, backed up by Conybeare and an Irish nationalist Charles Tanner, questioned the propriety of Battenberg's appointment to the Navy in 1868, given Battenberg's failure to get the required medical certificate, and suggested that he only got in the Navy because of royal favour.

On 3 October 1889, Battenberg was appointed to his first independent command, HMS Scout, a torpedo-cruiser, which saw service in the Red Sea.