Hunter N. Kennington

Admiral Sir Hunter Neville Kennington (1857-1957) KES was one of Iansisle's most prolific admirals. He served as a midshipman in the days before steam power was used in the Royal Iansislean Navy and was not forced into retirement from the office of the First Sea Lord until after the Walmies War.

He is perhaps most famous -- or infamous -- for being the commanding officer at the Battle of Salvador, which was one of the Navy's largest disasters. However, because Kennington had not been present at the actual location of the battle -- he was with the main fleet some two hundred miles distant when Admiral Thomas Gurney's Advance Fleet was wiped out -- Kennington was acquitted with full honors at his Court Martial and went on to serve as the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet. Kennington later visited Walmington on Sea as part of HIMS Titan's world-tour.

After the Revolution and the death of Grand Admiral Sir Richard Tri, then the First Sea Lord, Kennington was shoved into the Admiralty as part of a power-play by Director of War Lawrence Madders. Madders wanted Admiral Martin Hansfield, a notorious republican closely affiliated with the radical labor leader, as the Navy's top man, but knew that the fleet was unready to accept him. Admiral Lord Westergate, then the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, was seen by many as Tri's logical successor. However, Madders plucked Kennington off the half-pay list and made him First Sea Lord, keeping Westergate at bay until Hansfield could be worked into the Admiralty. In late 1956, Kennington was forced into retirement and Hansfield became the Navy's top admiral. Kennington died peacefully in April 1957, just twelve days before his centennial birthday.