Vice-Admiral John Ernest Troyte Harper CB MVO (29 May 1874 – 27 May 1949) was a British Royal Navy officer.
[3] The First Lord, Walter Long advised the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 29 October 1919 that the record would be printed once it was ready.
Wemyss was replaced as First Sea Lord by David Beatty, who had commanded the detached battle cruiser Fleet at Jutland.
[5] Harper requested confirmation from Chatfield of the instructions to alter the record and received orders from Beatty to include them, 'in accordance with Board decision'.
However, Harper records that First Lord Walter Long asked him what was causing delay in publication, and was then unaware that Beatty had ordered changes.
The minutes of a Board of Admiralty meeting in March 1923, chaired by Beatty, noted that he should only be retained in the service if he received a favourable report from his commander in chief.
From 1934 to 1946 he was nautical assessor to the House of Lords After his retirement, Harper published another account of the battle, The truth about Jutland, in his own name.
In this he commented about the battlecruiser engagement commanded by Beatty "it is an indisputable fact that, in the first phase of this battle, a British squadron, greatly superior in numbers and gun-power, not only failed to defeat a weaker enemy who made no effort to avoid action, but, in the space of 50 minutes suffered what can only be described as a partial defeat.