The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department.
The Naval Intelligence Division (NID) was created as a component part of the Admiralty War Staff in 1912. It was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty before the establishment of a unified Defence Intelligence Staff in 1964. It dealt with matters concerning British naval plans, with the collection of naval intelligence. It was also known as "Room 39", after its room number at the Admiralty.
Vice Admiral Sir John Augustine Collins, was a Royal Australian Navy (RAN) officer who served in both World Wars, and who eventually rose to become a vice admiral and Chief of Naval Staff. Collins was one of the first graduates of the Royal Australian Naval College to attain flag rank. During the Second World War, he commanded the cruiser HMAS Sydney in the Mediterranean campaign. He led the Australian Naval Squadron in the Pacific theatre and was wounded in the first recorded kamikaze attack, in 1944.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Edward Beckwith Ashmore, was a senior Royal Navy officer. He saw active service in the Second World War and later commanded two frigates before achieving high command in the Navy. He served as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in the mid-1970s and in that role he advised the incoming Labour government on a major defence review and on the implications of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. He went on to be acting Chief of the Defence Staff, serving briefly in a caretaker capacity following the death of his predecessor.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Conyers Leach, was a Royal Navy officer who, as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff during the early 1980s, was instrumental in convincing the British prime minister Margaret Thatcher that retaking the Falkland Islands from Argentina was feasible. On account of the determination he showed in the matter, journalist and political commentator Andrew Marr described him as Thatcher's "knight in shining gold braid".
Admiral Sir Herbert William Richmond, was a prominent Royal Navy officer, described as "perhaps the most brilliant naval officer of his generation." He was also a top naval historian, known as the "British Mahan", the leader of the British Royal Navy's intellectual revolution that stressed continuing education especially in naval history as essential to the formation of naval strategy. After serving as a "gadfly" to the British Admiralty, his constructive criticisms causing him to be "denied the role in the formation of policy and the reformations of naval education which his talents warranted", he served as Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at Cambridge University from 1934 to 1936, and Master of Downing College, Cambridge from 1934 to 1946.
Admiral Sir Ragnar Musgrave Colvin, was a long-serving Royal Navy officer who commanded the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) at the outbreak of the Second World War.
Admiral Sir George Francis Hyde, was an English-born Australian admiral, known as a former head and the first officer to achieve the rank of full admiral in the Royal Australian Navy.
Vice Admiral Sir Hugh David Stevenson was a senior officer of the Royal Australian Navy, serving as Chief of Naval Staff from 1973 to 1976.
Lieutenant General Sir Reginald Francis Stewart Denning, was a British Army staff officer and administrator.
Vice Admiral Sir Roy William "Gus" Halliday, was a British naval pilot who saw service in the Second World War, in the British Pacific Fleet and subsequently became Director-General Intelligence in Britain's Defence Intelligence Staff from 1981 to 1984.
Vice-Admiral Sir Louis Edward Stewart Holland Le Bailly, KBE, CB was a Royal Navy officer who became director-general of intelligence and later a writer.
Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Grenville Lyon Cazalet KBE CB DSO DSC was a senior Royal Navy officer who commanded the Reserve Fleet.
Vice-Admiral Sir Edwin John Horlick was a British Royal Navy officer who served as Director-General of British Ships from 1979 to 1983, and as Chief Naval Engineer Officer from 1981 to 1983.
Admiral Sir Aubrey Clare Hugh Smith KCVO KBE CB was a Royal Navy officer who saw active service in the First World War and the Greco-Turkish War. In the mid-1920s he was Naval Representative to the League of Nations.
Vice-Admiral Sir James Andrew Gardiner Troup, KBE, CB was a Royal Navy officer.
The Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff (DCNS) is a senior appointment in the Royal Navy currently held by the Second Sea Lord. The incumbent is usually a three-star rank and had a NATO ranking code of OF-8, but the position has previously been held by an acting two-star ranked officer and a four-star ranked officer.
The Admiralty War Staff was the former senior naval staff operational planning organisation within the British Admiralty that existed from 1912 to 1917. It was instituted on 8 January 1912 by Winston Churchill in his capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty and was in effect a war council whose head reported directly to the First Sea Lord. After the First World War ended, the War Staff was replaced by the Admiralty Naval Staff department.
Rear Admiral Arthur David Torlesse, was a Royal Navy officer. He commanded the escort carrier HMS Hunter during the latter part of the Second World War, and the aircraft carrier HMS Triumph during the early months of the Korean War. In 1952, he commanded the task force that supported Operation Hurricane, the first British nuclear weapons test.
United Kingdom 
Royal Navy 