Philip Watts

Sir Philip Watts (30 May 1846 – 15 March 1926) was a British naval architect, famous for designing numerous Elswick cruisers and the revolutionary battleship HMS Dreadnought.

Early life Watts was born in Deptford, Kent and educated at the Dockyard School in Portsmouth and the Royal School of Naval Architecture in South Kensington, London.

Career Watts became a constructor to the Admiralty from 1870 to 1885, and reached the rank of chief constructor. From 1885 to 1901 he was director of the war shipping department of Armstrong Whitworth at Elswick (subsequently returning as a director of the company in 1912); but in 1902 he was appointed Director of Naval Construction at the Admiralty. He held this post until 1912, when he was succeeded by Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt and became adviser to the Admiralty on naval construction. In this capacity he played an important part when World War I came.

Being the designer of the first dreadnought battleship, it was now up to him to see the use that was made of the fleet which he had brought into being in previous years. In 1912, he was appointed to the Royal Commission on Fuel and Engines.

Watts was a keen volunteer, and a commanding officer of the 1st Northumberland Artillery Volunteers. He was created KCB in 1905.

Ships designed Armstrong Whitworth