John Lancaster (Royal Navy officer)

Vice-Admiral Sir John Strike Lancaster, KBE, CB (26 June 1903 – 7 January 1992) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy.

Early life and education

Born on 26 June 1903, John Strike Lancaster was the son of George Henry Lancaster, a marine architect. He attended King Edward VI School in Southampton before entering the Royal Navy in 1921.^[1][2]

Career

Lancaster joined the navy as a special entry paymaster cadet. He spent large stretches of his early career in the Far East, and had one of his arms dragon tattooed.^[2]

Lancaster was promoted to the rank of commander in 1940,^[1] and in 1941 took up the post of drafting commander of HMS Victory in Portsmouth, where he was responsible for sending supply officers to other posts; he had previously served aboard the cruiser HMS Gloucester, which was shortly afterwards lost in the Battle of Crete along with many of its crew.^[2] He went on to serve in the Persian Gulf before the end of the Second World War.^[1] In 1946, he was supply officer aboard HMS Ocean which assisted in rescuing survivors of the Corfu Channel incident.^[2]

Lancaster was promoted to captain in 1951, and rear-admiral five years later, coinciding with this appointment as rear-admiral personnel, Home Air Command; he was promoted to vice-admiral and appointed director-general of manpower and chief naval supply and secretariat officer in 1959, serving in both posts until 1962, when he retired.^[1]

Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1958, Lancaster was also appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1961. He died on 7 January 1992; his wife, Edith Laurie née Jacobs, had died in 1980, but he was survived by their two daughters.^[1]

References

1. "Lancaster, Vice-Adm. Sir John (Strike)". Who Was Who (online edition, Oxford University Press, December 2007). Retrieved 9 April 2018.
2. "Vice-Admiral Sir John Lancaster", The Times (London), 16 January 1992, p. 16.