his services in China, Hood was given command of on the North America and West Indies Station in December 1862 and then became captain of the gunnery school HMS Excellent as well as Director of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth in September 1866. He went on to be Director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty in 1869. He was thoroughly acquainted with the routine work of the office and the established armament of the navy, but he had not the power of adapting himself to the changes which were being called for, and still less of initiating them, so that during his period of office the armament of the ships remained behind the general advance. Nevertheless, having been appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 20 May 1871, he became captain of the turret ship in the Channel Squadron in June 1874. Senior command Promoted to rear admiral on 22 March 1876, he became Second Naval Lord in January 1877 and then Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron in December 1879 with promotion to vice admiral on 23 July 1880. Hood was appointed First Naval Lord in June 1885, advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 19 December 1885 and promoted to full admiral on 18 January 1886. He stood down in March 1886, just nine months after taking office, when the Marquis of Ripon was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty but was restored to his position when William Gladstone's Liberal Government fell from power in August 1886. As First Naval Lord he favoured low freeboard turret battleships and was instrumental in ensuring the s entered service. However he was primarily concerned with enshrining into law the recommendations contained in a report on the disposition of the ships of the Royal Navy many of which were unarmoured and together incapable of meeting the combined threat from any two of the other naval powers ("the Two-power Standard"): these recommendations were contained in the Naval Defence Act 1889. He retired on attaining the age of sixty-five in July 1889. Hood was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 3 September 1889 and raised to the peerage as Baron Hood of Avalon, in the County of Somerset on 23 February 1892, a title that became extinct on his death. After two years of ill health, he died at his nephew's