Finally, they selected Dartmouth as the most suitable in every respect, and Southampton Water proxime accessit. Probably a very fine site might have been found there, and it is a more bracing situation than Dartmouth; but the long association of the Britannia with the latter perhaps turned the scale in its favour.
The Britannia attracted a good deal of attention in Parliament during the ’seventies. There is a Parliamentary Paper called for in 1877, which gives a correspondence between Mr. Penry Lloyd, whose son was in the Britannia in 1876, the Admiralty, and the captain of the Britannia.
From this it appears that, on December 16th, 1876, Captain Graham wrote to Mr. Lloyd, informing him that the chief naval instructor reported that his son, Cadet J. E. Lloyd, was idle and troublesome, had very little ability, was worthless, and unfit to be an officer; and he requested Mr. Lloyd therefore to remove his son from the ship.
This communication called forth an unexpected reply, Mr. Lloyd declaring that he wished to withdraw his son, but that he first demanded an inquiry into sundry charges preferred by the latter against certain cadets, who, it was alleged, had cruelly bullied him, and so hindered him thereby in his studies that he was unable to pursue them to advantage.
One cadet, it was stated, compelled young Lloyd to sing in the messroom, contrary to regulations, whereby he incurred punishment; another kicked and knocked him down without provocation; and on more than one occasion he was compelled to give up his pocket money under threats of personal violence. His fear of being beaten by the cadets was greater than his fear of punishment by the authorities, etc.
Captain Graham replies that he and his officers will investigate the matter when the cadets return from leave.
Eventually, however, the Admiralty appointed a committee, presided over by Admiral Willes, to inquire into the matter, on board the Britannia, with the result that Mr. Lloyd was informed that there was not sufficient ground for these charges. He applied for the minutes of the inquiry, and was refused; but the Admiralty upheld him in deprecating the application of the term “worthless” to his son, in Captain Graham’s first letter.
There appears to be little doubt that there was some bullying of a somewhat gross nature at this time; like all other large schools, the Britannia has suffered from occasional outbreaks of this kind, probably instigated as a rule by one or two big boys; and as the small boys are afraid to report it, there is often some difficulty in convicting the culprits.
On June 18th, 1877, an attack was made by Mr. Shaw Lefevre in the House of Commons on the regulations of 1875, when, as has been described, competition was abolished as a result of the report of the committee.