Bernard Rawlings (Royal Navy officer)

Sir Bernard Rawlings

Vice Admiral Rawlings during World War
Birth name Henry Bernard Hughes Rawlings
Born 21 May 1889
St Erth, Cornwall, England
Died 30 September 1962(1962-09-30) (aged 73)
Bodmin, Cornwall, England
Allegiance  United Kingdom
Service/branch  Royal Navy
Years of service 1904–1946
Rank Admiral
Commands held
Battles/wars
Awards

Admiral Sir Henry Bernard Hughes Rawlings GBE KCB (21 May 1889 – 30 September 1962) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Flag Officer, Eastern Mediterranean during World War II.

Naval career

Rawlings was born in St Erth, Cornwall, England, on 30 September 1889.[1] Following education at Stubbington House School Rawlings joined the Royal Navy in 1904 and served in World War I.[2] After the War he worked for the Foreign Office and undertook Military Missions in Poland.[2] He then commanded the destroyer HMS Active and then the cruisers HMS Curacoa and HMS Delhi before becoming Naval Attaché in Tokyo in 1936.[2]

He served in World War II initially commanding the battleship HMS Valiant, then commanding the 1st Battle Squadron from 1940 before commanding the 7th Cruiser Squadron from 1941 and becoming Assistant Chief of Naval Staff in 1942.[2] He became Flag Officer, West Africa in 1943 and Flag Officer, Eastern Mediterranean in 1943.[2] He went on to be second-in-command of the British Pacific Fleet with his flag in HMS King George V.[3] He commanded British Task Force 57 in the Pacific from 1944 through the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945[4] and retired in 1946.[2]

Rawlings died in Bodmin, Cornwall, England, on 30 September 1962.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 uboat.net Sir Henry Bernard Rawlings OBE, RN
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
  3. ↑ National Maritime Museum
  4. ↑ Stevens, Mike (27 March 2005). "What my Dad Did for Us in the War". WW2 People's War. BBC.
Military offices
Preceded by
Sir Algernon Willis		 Flag Officer, Eastern Mediterranean
(formerly Commander-in-Chief, Levant)
December 1943 – June 1944 		Succeeded by
Post Disbanded


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