page_title: HMS Excellent (shore establishment)
section_title: RN Gunnery School ashore
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Excellent (shore establishment) / History / RN Gunnery School ashore
caption_attribution_description: English: Reproduced from the 1945 OS map
context_page_description: HMS Excellent is a Royal Navy "stone frigate" (shore establishment) sited on Whale Island near Portsmouth in Hampshire. HMS Excellent is itself part of the Maritime Warfare School, with a Headquarters at HMS Collingwood, although a number of lodger units are resident within the site, the principal of which is the Headquarters of Fleet Commander.
context_section_description: It was under Fisher's command, in the 1880s, that approval was given to move the gunnery school ashore, on to Whale Island. The initial proposal had come from a Lieutenant Percy Scott, who (having arrived to train as a gunnery lieutenant in 1878) initially used the island as a running track. The island had grown significantly in size since the 1850s: indeed, up until the early 1890s excavated spoil from the expansion of the Dockyard was routinely conveyed there, using convict labour, to build the island up. Scott returned to Excellent as an instructor in 1883 and took the opportunity to submit a detailed proposal to Fisher which was accepted. (Later in his career Scott was again posted to HMS Excellent on two occasions, returning first as Commander in 1890 and then as Captain of the establishment in the early 1900s.)
  The first buildings of the shore establishment were begun in 1885 (including what is now known as the Quarterdeck Block) and building work then continued alongside the tasks of draining and levelling the land (the site was known colloquially as 'Mud Island'). By 1891 the whole operation had moved ashore and the old ship was paid off. Centred on a large open drill ground, the site includes the officers' mess in a range to the north with rows of barracks blocks for ratings (demolished and rebuilt c. 2010) arrayed behind. To the west, opposite the Quarterdeck, were long gun battery sheds; the long low drill shed to the south is a listed building (1892). Firing training took place on the batteries and all different varieties of guns were kept on site for instruction on their maintenance and operation. Later, full-sized dummy gun turrets were provided for training purposes. Seagoing training also took place up until 1957 on a series of battleships, cruisers and destroyers that were attached to the facility. From the late 1950s guided missile training was also provided.
  The Portsmouth Field Gun Crew, competing in the Royal Navy field gun competition at the Royal Tournament, used to be based at the site. A small museum in the Quarterdeck block preserves artefacts from Excellent's days as a gunnery school; among them is the state gun carriage which is drawn by naval ratings at state funerals of monarchs and other distinguished UK citizens.
caption: Whale Island in 1945
exif: {}