BOB HIND: So when did '˜navy' become '˜military'?

Can anyone tell me: since when has the Royal Navy become '˜military'?

Surely the army is the military.

It has always been ‘naval’ power, ‘naval’ engineering etc.

But when the new aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales was named recently the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, when talking about both new carriers said: ‘Alone, either one of the vessels would be a formidable expression of military might.’

Surely, he should have said ‘naval might’?

The army is military and the navy is naval, or it always has been as far as I’m concerned.

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Sailors have never been in the ‘military’. They are in the navy.

Books are published by the Naval & Military Press.

And in St James’s, London, you will find the Naval and Military Club.

The National Archive has references under the Naval and Military Archive.

Not one of them says simply ‘military’.