REAR-ADMIRAL PATRICK VIVIAN McLAUGHLIN, RN, CB, DSO (1901-1969) is shown on the right as a midshipman when he joined the Royal Navy in 1917. He qualified for gunnery duties at HMS Excellent, the gunnery school in Portsmouth, rising in 1936 to Fleet Gunnery Officer with the battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth.

In 1939 he commanded the destroyer HMS Mashona when she helped to locate and escort back to England a submarine severely damaged in the German Bight.  On New Year's Eve Patrick was promoted to captain.

He then took command of HMS Cairo for the Norwegian campaign, and was mentioned in despatches for courage and endurance in action against enemy aircraft that damaged the cruiser off Narvik.

Patrick spent the next two years as Deputy Director of Naval Ordnance before becoming captain of the cruiser HMS Spartan when she was commissioned in August 1943. The Spartan fired 900 rounds in a bombardment to support the Allied assault across the Garigliano River near Naples on 17th January, 1944. On the 29th, a German glider bomb sunk her off Anzio, killing five officers and 41 ratings.

Patrick survived to command another cruiser, the HMS Swiftsure, in the Okinawa campaign. The photograph shows her on 30 August 1945 entering Victoria Harbour Hong Kong, where he oversaw the surrender of Japanese forces in his capacity as Chief of Staff and Vice-Admiral Commanding 4th Cruiser Squadron, British Pacific Fleet.

Two years later Patrick took charge of his old gunnery school, after being awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

In 1951 he became a Companion of the Order of the Bath while serving on the Ordnance Board (consisting of experts on weapons safety). He was President of the Board when he retired in 1953.

The CB, the Companion level of the Most Honourable and Ancient Order of the Bath, presented for military service of the highest caliber

© 2006 G. Harry McLaughlin.
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