Misplaced Pages

Richard Clayton (Royal Navy officer)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

Admiral
Sir Richard Clayton
GCB
Born9 July 1925
Died15 September 1984(1984-09-15) (aged 59)
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service / branch Royal Navy
Years of service1942 – 1981
RankAdmiral
CommandsHMS Puma
Gibraltar Dockyard
HMS Kent
HMS Hampshire
Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command
Battles / warsWorld War II
Suez Crisis
AwardsKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

Admiral Sir Richard Pilkington Clayton GCB (9 July 1925 – 15 September 1984) was Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command.

Naval career

Clayton joined the Royal Navy in 1942 and served as a midshipman on HMS Cumberland until 1943 when he was on various destroyers of the Home Fleet. He also served on HMS Striker during the Suez Crisis in 1956.

He became Commanding Officer of HMS Puma in 1958 and Executive Officer on HMS Lion in 1962. He became Captain of the Gibraltar Dockyard in 1967 and then commanded HMS Kent and then HMS Hampshire in the late 1960s. He was appointed Flag Officer Second Flotilla in 1973 and Senior Naval Member on Directing Staff at the Royal College of Defence Studies in 1975.

He was appointed Controller of the Navy in 1975, was promoted to full admiral on 28 March 1978, and became Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command in 1979. He retired in 1981.

In retirement he became a Director at GEC and was a Governor of Rendcomb College. He died in a motor cycling accident in September 1984.

References

  1. ^ Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  2. Naval Review, Vol. 73, No. 2 April 1995
  3. "No. 47499". The London Gazette (Supplement). 23 March 1978. p. 3779.
  4. Naval Review, Vol. 73, No.1 January 1985
  5. Old Rendcombian Newsletter 1996
  6. Old Rendcombian Newsletter 1985
Military offices
Preceded bySir Anthony Griffin Controller of the Navy
1975–1979
Succeeded bySir John Fieldhouse
Preceded bySir David Williams Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command
1979–1981
Succeeded bySir James Eberle
Categories: