Robert Don Oliver

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox military person Vice-Admiral Robert Don Oliver Template:Postnominals (17 March 1895 – 6 October 1980) was a Royal Navy officer who was appointed Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff.

Naval career

Oliver served in World War I taking part in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914, fighting at Gallipoli in 1915 and then undertaking mine-laying off the German and Belgian coast.<ref name=nmm>National Maritime Museum</ref> Promoted to captain, he was given command of HMS Iron Duke in 1939.<ref name=lh>Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives</ref>

He also served in World War II and was commanding HMS Devonshire,<ref>HMS Devonshire at www.uboat.net</ref> a heavy cruiser, on 21 November 1941, when he was informed that codebreakers had determined that German U-boats were going to be surfacing near him, to refuel from a merchant raider, the Hilfskreuzer (cruiser) Atlantis. Using the intelligence, Devonshire sunk Atlantis.<ref>Churchill Society</ref> He later commanded the gunnery school HMS Excellent and then the cruiser Template:HMS.<ref name=lh/>

After the War he was appointed Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Weapons) and then Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff in 1946.<ref name=lh/> His last appointment, in 1947, was as Flag Officer commanding the 5th Cruiser Squadron,<ref name=lh/> before he retired on 26 September 1948, and was promoted to vice-admiral on the same day.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

In retirement he became Deputy Lieutenant of Roxburghshire.<ref name=unit>Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939–1945</ref>

Family

In 1928 he married Torfrida Lois Acantha Huddart; there were no children.<ref name=unit/> Following the death of his first wife, he married Mrs M.J. Glendinning van der Velde in 1965.<ref name=unit/>

References

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