John Frederick Thomas Jane - founder of Jane's Fighting Ships

Frederick Jane was not of Devon stock, being born on the 6th August, 1865 in Surrey. He was the son of a vicar, and a descendent of several naval figures and explorers. As a child, he showed a keen interest in the navy, and would sale his model ships on the local village pond in Upottery near Honiton, Devon. To add interest to his hobby, he devised a complex system of signalling, which would eventually be adopted by the Royal Navy when on manoeuvres.

The young Frederick was sent to Exeter School for his education, where he took a particular interest in chemistry, especially chemistry of the explosive type. A master at the school drily wrote of Frederick's interest - "He can be expected to go a long way, in one direction or another." While at school he started a sketchbook of the many "ironclads of the world".

During the 1890's he worked as an illustrator for scientific romances and for his own novels such as To Venus in Ten Seconds and The Violet Flame.

In 1889, after he left school, he was commissioned by a magazine, to cover the war games and inspection of the combined fleets at Spithead, by Kaiser Wilhelm II. He sketched and noted the statistical details of 100 ships, and as a result, gained a reputation for the accuracy and quality of his drawings, which were considered to be some of the finest of his generation. It was nine years later, in 1898 that he combined all his records, into publishing Jane's Fighting Ships - within two years it was accepted as the definitive guide to the navies of the world. In 1909, five years after the Wright Brothers' first tentative flight at Kittyhawk, Jane published All the Worlds Airships (Aeroplanes and Dirigibles).

Frederick Jane's, war gaming tactics had been adopted by the Center for War Gaming at the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island. A Welshman, Hector Charles Bywater was brought in to advise the US Navy on tactics. He used, Jane's tactics to devise a strategy that would, ultimately, influence the outcome of the Second World War in the Pacific, against Japan.

Jane is said, in 1910, to have kidnapped Winston Churchill in Portsmouth to prevent him speaking at a political meeting for a Liberal candidate. He met Churchill at the station and drove him into the country side. Frederick Jane died on 8th March 1916 at the age of 51.

So, a boy's war games on a Devon pond, chemistry experiments at Exeter School, and penchant for recording all things naval, led to a publishing empire, and influenced the tactics of the Second World War in the Pacific.

Included at the suggestion of Martin Coombs