Sodomy

This chapter explores the secret policy introduced by the British Admiralty in 1911 to stamp out homoerotic practices in the Royal Navy. Homosexual acts were illegal in pre-First World War Britain and harsh sentences would be awarded to any sailor convicted (by court martial) of so-called ‘unnatural crime’. However, in the decade prior to 1911 prosecutions were infrequent and convictions rarer still. This all changed in 1911. Following a spate of indecency and sodomy cases, a concerted effort was made by the naval leadership to remedy this. Archaic offences against naval law were revived in order to facilitate prosecutions and the naval medical service was charged with providing evidence of homosexual acts. The result was a significant increase in the prosecution and conviction of sailors for homosexual acts, a process that was only curtailed as a result of the outbreak of war in 1914.