into the Admiralty to oversee antisubmarine science: they were working with the French to develop sonar which was ready just when the war ended. Jellicoe was replaced at the end of 1917. Convoys in home waters lost only 1.25 percent of their ships, and 2,084,000 American soldiers reached Europe; only 113 were lost to U-boats, despite the German Admiralty's boast that they would destroy them all. At war's end the world supply of shipping was larger than it had been at the outset, thanks to the growth of the Japanese and American merchant fleets. It was a great Allied victory. Lloyd George's evaluation was that Geddes was "... one of the most remarkable men which the State called to its aid ..." He left the Admiralty in January 1919 and was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. Lloyd George then asked him to organize a new Ministry of Transport. Until the bill setting up this new office was passed in May 1919, he remained in the cabinet as minister without portfolio. In May 1919 he was appointed the first Minister of Transport. The new ministry was given control over railways, roads, canals and docks but was criticized in both houses of parliament for giving in to nationalization and for its large size. In the autumn of 1921 the handing back of the railways from state control to the companies was being reviewed, which put the Ministry of Transport under further pressure. Geddes had neither taste nor aptitude for political infighting, he resigned in November 1921. Austerity programme In 1921 Geddes chaired the Committee on National Expenditure which proposed heavy cuts in public expenditure to match falling national income, the austerity policy became known as the Geddes Axe. A notable feature of the recommendations involved army cuts: in personnel by 50,000 men from 210,000; and in funding by 20 million pounds from an existing army estimates of 75 million. When enacted, the public expenditure cuts depressed the economy further. Geddes resigned from the government and the Commons in 1922, becoming director of Dunlop Rubber. From 1924 until his death he was chairman of Imperial Airways. Family Geddes married Gwendolen, daughter of Reverend A. Stokes, in 1900. They had three sons, including Sir Reay Geddes, former chairman of the Dunlop Rubber Company. Eric Geddes died in June 1937, at the age of 61, after several years of