Commander

A commander is - naturally enough - 'one who commands, or is in charge of' something. It has some specific uses.

• It began as a military term. It was a general term for the leader of any army or other force, but seems to have been first used specifically as the name of a rank in those religious orders of the Christian Church set up to fight for God against non-Christians, such as the Knights Hospitallers. Such a usage is preserved in some of the British orders of chivalry, as in a Knight Commander of the [Order of the] Bath'.
• It is currently the name of a position, or a duty, usually in military terms. An officer may be designated Commander of a particular force. In manned space flight, the member of a crew who makes the final decisions is named by NASA the Commander, as Neil Armstrong, the first human to walk on the Moon, was the designated Commander of Apollo 11.
  • More permanently, officers may be appointed Commander-in-Chief (C. in C.) of the forces in a region, such as the North Atlantic, or of a purpose, such as the C. in C. of an expeditionary force, like the British in the Sudan in the nineteenth century. The Royal Navy has appointed Commanders-in-Chief to control all the vessels in a given port, or wider area. Since the Second World War, the title of Supreme Commander has been used to name one with authority over all three arms (army, navy and air force) of all allies in one area, as General Eisenhower was Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force in Normandy in 1944 and Europe till the end of the war.
  • Some Commanders-in-Chief are civilians, particularly in states where the constitution insists that the military is subordinate to civilian control. In the British Empire, the local commander-in-chief was usually the Governor, a Civil Service appointment. In the USA, the President is ex officio the Commander-in-Chief.
• In the Royal Navy, and in forces in other countries, there is a rank of Commander. This is a rank (of the level below a captain, and above a Lieutenant Commander, who in turn ranks above a Lieutenant). This rank does not necessarily mean the effective command of a vessel. A Commander RN may serve as the First Lieutenant of a large ship, as a member of an Admiral's Staff, or on shore in any of a number of staff appointments; but he may have command of a frigate or other smaller vessel that is above a Lieutenant's powers.
• In the history of Islam, the Caliphs since Umar bore a title أَمِير ٱلْمُؤْمِنِين (amīr al-muʾminīn), Commander of the Faithful. (This title has since been adopted by other Muslim leaders.)