The best Royal Navy admiral ever is?

Pre-1815? Definitely Nelson.

Post-1815? Arguably Fieldhouse as he single-handedly revived the UK as a military force to be reckoned with in naval terms after a long period when the UK was quite content to focus on the USSR and ground forces.
 
I would agree with those who say Blake in the Age of Sail. Mounting a blockade through the winter, thousands of miles from home, in ships of the mid-17th century? Attacking Tenerife successfully? Beating the Dutch at sea? The man is astounding.

Post 1815, I am seriously tempted to say Bertram Ramsay. His main contribution is less in out-and-out naval warfare, more on amphibious operations (and organising the evacuation from Dunkirk), but I'm biased because my grandmother worked under him in the WRNS while he was at Dover.
 
Woodward was a good Admiral but as impressive as his achievements were one campaign doesn't make him the equal of Cunningham.
 
Pre 1815: There are too many to choose from but I will go for Blake and Nelson .
Pust 1815 the choices are fewer but A B Cunnigham.

Much as I admire Cochrane his greatest feats in the RN were not at flag rank (which he did not achieve until after reinstatement in 1832. Otherwise he would be on my list.
 
Pre 1815 General at Sea Robert Blake. Even Nelson wouldnt have thought himself better than Blake he wasnt known as "The Father of the Navy" for nothing. Nelson the better fighter Blake the better Admiral.

Post 1815 Admiral A B Cunningham.
 
Either John Hawkins, for his modernization of the English fleet, or Charles Howard, to whom the victory over the Armada chiefly belongs. I give these two credit over better-known officers such as Nelson because they accomplished what they did at the cutting edge of developing technology and tactics, whereas later figures drew on a body of available experience.
 
Any thoughts on Sandy Woodward?

He wasn't a bad admiral, however his staff let him down on quite a few ocasions, he didn't really seem to understand the Sea Harrier, though that may have been the fault of the ex-fixed wing FAA officers on his staff, and seemed to forget at times that he was not actually in command of the task force, but just the carrier group.
Commodore Clapp mentions that Woodward tried sticking his oar in over landing sites after all the planning for Operation Sutton had been carried out.

Some historians have since argued that what the RN needed was a VADM in tactical charge in the South Atlantic.
 
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