In those days up to the 1960s in fact there was two Naval chiefs. The first Lord of the Admiralty
who was a civilian government appointment (as Churchill had) and the First Sea Lord who was a very senior Admiral. We still have the First sea Lord,but the one Churchill held was abolished in the 1960s when the Ministry of Defence (MOD) was established.
Churchill was very upset at them killed in his naval campaigns and felt the need to spend some time on the Western front. In 1939 Winston took up his old naval job and a message went round the fleet "Winstons back"
he was no bloody good at running the navy, one day he was commanding the biggest navy in the world the next he was commanding a battalion on the western front..
the failed invasion of the dardenelles (Gallipoli), which was not entirely his fault ,but he felt the need to "fall on his sword"
