Royal Navy Instructor Officers

People

John Knox Laughton
Born in 1830, John Knox Laughton, a mathematically-trained civilian naval instructor in HM Ships, served in the Baltic War and in the operations against the Chinese in the late 1850s. He came ashore in 1866 to teach at the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth. He moved with the College to Greenwich in 1873, as Head of the Department of Meteorology and Marine Surveying; but in 1876 he gave his first historical lecture. In 1885 he left the navy and became Professor of Modern History at King's which he held until 1914.
http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/94

James Morton PASK
On 28 March 1872 James joined the Royal Navy as an Instructor. "Naval Instructors" were introduced into the Navy in 1826 to assist the "young gentlemen" in acquisition of sufficient knowledge to enable them to pass their examinations for Lieutenant. The economical practice of combining the Naval Instructor with the Chaplain died out during the 1914-18 war. Payment to the Naval Instructor of £5 p.a. from each Midshipman's own pay ceased in about 1910 though the order for this was not officially rescinded till 1923. His initial ship was the H.M.S. Druid off the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa, where he served for three years. On the 30 January 1875, he joined H.M.S. Britannia, a training ship for R.N. Cadets. A few months later on 4 June 1875, he joined H.M.S. Immortalité where he served for two years. In 1877 after a short spell when he did not have a ship, he joined H.M.S. Temeraire on 17 August 1877, and served in the Mediterranean. He left H.M.S. Temeraire on 6 June 1882. On 28 March 1883 he joined H.M.S. Neptune where he stayed only a short while, as on 22 November 1883, he joined H.M.S. President, a drill ship for Royal Naval Reserve at West India Docks, London. On 29 August 1889, he joined H.M.S. Northumberland, the Flag Ship for the Channel Squadron until 9 May 1890, when he joined H.M.S. Howe also in the Channel Squadron. In 1892, on 31 May he joined another Flag Ship for the Channel Squadron, this time it was the H.M.S. Royal Sovereign where he served for two years. On 12 January 1894, he joined H.M.S. Britannia, the training ship for naval cadets at Dartmouth. His final ship was the H.M.S. Prince George in the Channel Squadron. He joined the ship on 15 September 1899. This was the final entry in the Navy List. He probably retired in 1900.

Whilst serving on the H.M.S. Druid, he took part in the Ashantee war led by Sir Garnet Wolseley that took place in Oct 1873-March 1874. On his return to England, in 1874, he wrote to the British Musuem.

Dear Sir,
I send you two skulls. They were taken by King Hama-dikky (King of Dixcove) after the bombardment of Aquidah by HMS Druid, and the attack on the town by the Dixcove river in the last war. I received them on the evening after the battle from his majesty through the commandant. They are cut in the manner you will observe in all probability to serve as drinking cups. The men of Aquidah are of the Ahanta tribe.
I am your obedient servant
James Morton Pask R.N.
http://www.pask.org.uk/Pask-p/p228.htm

Glancing into the future
In the autumn of 1914, Naval Schoolmaster Stanley Bertram Collins lost his life when the old cruiser Hawke was torpedoed in the North Sea. Collins was the first schoolie to be engulfed by the inferno that became the First World War. A total of 18 schoolie officers and ratings lost their lives during the war. At the conflict’s end, another schoolie, Instructor Commander Guy V. Rayment, CBE, had found his way to naval intelligence posts in far-off lands, with the resulting decorations including the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure (3rd Class). Rayment went on to translate and publish the writings of an imperial Japanese Navyofficer in 1936: Why Japan Must Fight Britain.

Rear-Admiral John Bell
A former deputy chairman of the Police Complaints Authority mugged early one morning as he returned from a lecture on offensive weapons given in London by Douglas Hurd, the Home Secretary.

At 12.40 am on July 31 1987, he was proceeding towards his yellow Mini, nicknamed Waldorf, outside Taunton station when two men jostled and grabbed him around the neck. Fending them off with sword thrusts from his umbrella, Bell rushed into the passing traffic. The thieves cut him under the chin with a watch or ring, but realised that they had taken on more than they anticipated, and made off with the umbrella.

"I had a heavy briefcase full of papers with me; and, in a way, I wish they had stolen it," Bell genially recalled afterwards. "I became the world's classic coward, and screamed for help. Cars swerved to avoid me. They probably thought I was drunk."

Later that day, he posed with the umbrella (value £5), which had been recovered nearby.

An inveterate committeeman, who was believed to have been the only Royal Marine to become a rear-admiral, John Anthony Bell was born at Dundee on November 25 1924. He was educated at St Ignatius College, Stamford Hill, but missed the chance of higher education when he was called up in 1943; he was keen to make up for this ever after. Before his retirement from the Navy with a CB in 1977, he had gained three external degrees - a BA in French, a BSc in Maths and an LLB - and had been called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1970.

Bell reached the rank of corporal in the intelligence section of the Marines' 22nd Training Battalion then became a warrant schoolmaster, and later an instructor lieutenant in the Navy. After the war the "schoolies" branch was the only method of post-graduate entry into the Navy for non-engineers.

Bell was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy, serving as meteorology officer of the carrier Sydney and then at the naval air station in Nowra, New South Wales. In 1952, he was sent to the carrier Implacable, where he trained classes of over-confident young "schoolies", who were joining the Navy without the benefit of years of Dartmouth training. Ever proud of his Royal Marines background, Bell was fierce about minor uniform violations, but could charm his trainees off duty with his ability to mimic the captain's voice over the telephone. He and Captain John Stewart, RM, used to perform The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God.

Bell's skill in meteorology was recognised when, as an instructor lieutenant-commander, he became senior Met Officer on the staff of Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic. He was Director of Meteorology and Oceanography in 1975 and then Director of the Naval Education Service.

In retirement he helped the Royal Naval Association grow into an organisation of 33,000 men and women with strong international connections. Although possessed of an exceptionally quick and decisive mind, Bell regarded no task as beneath him, translating the rules of the association's French sister organisation.

He was a vice-president of the United Services Catholic Association and a member of the Clifton diocesan ecumenical commission. Although a papal Knight of St Gregory, he came up to London to play the Pope in the musical Henry the Tudor Dude, which was directed by one of his daughters in Wimbledon.

He also spent several years as the BBC's Education Secretary, responsible for its education strategy; was a member of the Police Complaints Authority and a research fellow in police studies at Exeter University. He chaired and served on numerous other boards and committees, including the London College of Furniture and the School of Oriental and African Studies.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk 2004

Adviser on Naval Education
Alexander McMullen, 1919–1936

Directors of the Education Department of the Admiralty
Instructor Captain Arthur Hall, 1936–1945
Instructor Captain William Saxton, 1945–1948
Instructor Captain William Bishop, 1948–1951

Directors of the Naval Education Service and Heads of the Instructor Branch
Instructor Rear-Admiral Sir William Bishop, 1951–1956
Instructor Rear-Admiral Sir John Fleming, 1956–1960
Instructor Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Darlington, 1960–1965
Instructor Rear-Admiral Albert Bellamy, 1965–1970
Instructor Rear-Admiral Brinley Morgan, 1970–1975
Rear-Admiral John Bell, 1975–1978

Chief Naval Instructor Officers
Held in conjunction with another appointment.
Rear-Admiral John Bell, 1978
Rear-Admiral William Waddell, 1978–1981
Rear-Admiral Trevor Spraggs, 1981–1983
Rear-Admiral G. A. Baxter, 1983–1984
Captain J. Marsh, 1984–1987
Rear-Admiral Jack Howard, 1987–1989

British North Greenland Expedition British North Greenland Expedition (1952-1954) was led by Commander James Simpson RN
North Ice was the name of a research station of the expedition, on the inland ice of Greenland. The co-ordinates of the station were 78°04'N 38°29'W, with an altitude of 2,345 metres above sea level. List of BNGE members, with their particulars

Agar John.Army Officer.Royal Signals.Arnold Keith Graduate.Mike Banks (mountaineer)Royal Marine Officer, Commando*.Boardman Spike. Army. Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Vehicles.Brett-Knowles B-K Naval Instructor Officer Oxford Physics Graduate*.Brooke Dicky Navajl Officer Surveyor*.Bruce Bob.ex-RAF Wireless Operator, Seismologist.Bull Colin Physics Graduate*.Cadd George ex-RAFVR Officer, Seismologist.Erskine Angus Naval Officer*.Dean Dixie Navy Telegraphist and Radio Mechanic*.Fletcher George Army Royal Engineers.Hamilton Richard Oxford Physics Graduate Meteorologist Second in command.Homard Roy Army Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Vehicles.Jensen Hans Danish Army Officer Surveyor (died in Greenland, 1953).Jones Eddy Merchant Navy Chief Officer*.Lewis Harold Medical Doctor.Lister Hal Graduate Glaciologist*.Masterton Jock Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Medical Doctor*.Moreton Ron Merchant Navy Chief Officer*.Oakley Taffy Army Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Vehicles*.Paterson Stan Graduate.Peacock Douggie Graduate Geologist.Rollitt Graham Naval Instructor Officer Graduate Meteorologist*.Simpson Commander Naval Electrical Officer Leader*.Slessor Malcolm Graduate.Taylor Buck Navy Telegraphist*.Taylor Pete Graduate Glaciologist*.Wylie Peter Graduate Geologist*.Walker Jim Army Royal Engineers.
http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/3448603

List of Officers 1949 Cruise
Instructor Commander A. Burnett, B.Sc.
Instructor-Lieutenant Commander 0. M. Hines, B.Sc.
Instructor-Lieutenants R. V. W. Heath, E. L. Campbell, B.A., L R,A.M. (P) R. Knowles, BA B.Sc.
http://royalnavymemories.co.uk/list-of-officers-1949-cruise/

For Operation ‘Pedestal' – passage of convoy from Gibraltar to Malta, 10 to 15 August 1942
(London Gazette 10 November 1942)
M in D
Instructor Lieutenant Robert Moss

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 13 JUNE, 1946
Instructor Lieutenant - Commander William Harold WATTS, B.Eng., Royal Navy.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 2ND JUNE 1973
O.B.E.
To be Ordinary Officers of the Military Division of the said Most Excellent Order :
Instructor Commander Kenneth Francis NORTHEY, Royal Navy.
M.B.E.
To be Ordinary Members of the Military Division of the said Most Excellent Order :
Instructor Lieutenant Barry Alfred BROOKING, Royal Navy.

Insolvent Debtors - 1843 Articles from the London Gazette
At the Court-House at Exeter, in the County of Devon, on the 11th day of April 1843 at Ten o'Clock in the Forenoon precisely.
Frederick William Bonter, late of Her Majesty's ship Caledonia, in Hamoaze, Devonport, previously of Hammersmith, Middlesex, belonging to Her Majesty's ship Dublin, previously of the Southampton, then of Hammersmith aforesaid, belonging to the ship Southampton, and formerly of Her Majesty's ship Excellent, at Portsmouth, Naval Instructor and Schoolmaster.

1914 - 1920 BRITISH WAR MEDAL to Warrant Schoolmaster J. S. Eccles, Royal Navy
http://www.neateauctions.co.uk/auction_details.php?name=1914--1920-BRITISH-WAR-MEDAL-to-Warrant-Schoolmaster-J-S-Eccles-Royal-Navy&auction_id=107641