Edwardian Britain, and Europe before World War I more broadly, produced a disproportionate number of memorable figures. Perhaps this is because their outstanding features are thrown into stark relief by our foreknowledge of the looming catastrophe. In the first decade of the 20th century, a rising generation of talented newcomers encountered the last vestiges of an aristocratic ruling class that had previously managed the British Empire from above. This was the era of a young Winston Churchill, but also of Lloyd George, the son of a Welsh schoolteacher and future wartime prime minister.

One such talented newcomer was John “Jacky” Fisher, who began his Royal Navy career as a midshipman and rose to the exalted rank of first lord of the Admiralty, transforming British naval doctrine in the process. If you were to pick one person who embodied the changes wrought by industry, science, and technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Fisher would be a reasonable choice. When he entered the Royal Navy, sailors still practiced reefing sails and cutlass drills and endured punishment by flogging. As first sea lord, Fisher would oversee the introduction of steel-clad, turbine-powered behemoths to a fleet that had ruled the Age of Sail.