Friends of Hastings Cemetery

In London Clowes was on the staff of the Army and Navy Gazette.  Concentrating on naval questions, he travelled with the Home Fleets during the manoeuvres as special naval correspondent of the Daily News (1885), The Standard (1887–90), and The Times (1890–95).  His reputation for expert naval knowledge was soon established.  He wrote articles, some under the pseudonym Nauticus, on the role of torpedo boats in war, the gunning of battleships, and the use of the ram, which were widely translated. He was awarded the gold medal of the United States Naval Institute in 1892. ‘The needs of the Navy’, published anonymously in the Daily Graphic in 1893, were credited with contributing to an increase in the naval estimates.

In autumn 1890 he paid one of many visits to the USA to study racial difficulties in the southern states for The Times.  His articles were published  in November and December 1890, and then in 1891 in Black America: a Study of the ex-Slave and his Master, foretelling a terrible race war in the USA.

He was a skilled linguist and contributed frequently to reviews in England, France, and Germany.  Besides historical and technical books he wrote many stories, mainly of the sea, and has some poetry published.  He was part author of Social England and  in 1896, founded and for some years edited, the Naval Pocket Book. He also edited Cassell's Miniature Cyclopaedia (1898).

He compiled, 1897 - 1903,  The Royal Navy : its History from the Earliest Times in 7 volumes in collaboration with others.  Its value was and is generally recognized.  He also published other works of naval history.

He was knighted in 1902 but lived abroad, for some years at Davos, Switzerland because of ill health.  He was granted, in 1904, a civil-list pension of £150 in 104.  He died at his home at Eversleigh Gardens, St Leonards, on 14 August 1905.  A civil-list pension of £100 was granted to his widow on 30 November 1905.  She died on 13th February 1939.

Sir William Laird Clowes continued