Vice-Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral.
Australia
In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...
Sir Peter Maxwell Compston (12 September 1915 – 20 August 2000) was a
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
officer who became
Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic.
Naval career
Educated at the
Epsom College
Epsom College is a co-educational independent school on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18. It was founded in 1853 as a benevolent institution which provided a boarding school education for sons of poor or deceased members ...
, Compston joined the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
in 1936
[Obituary: Vice Admiral Sir Peter Compston]
The Times, 19 September 2000 and transferred to the Royal Navy in 1937.
[Debrett's People of Today 1994] He served in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
with
810 Naval Air Squadron and then
700 Naval Air Squadron.
[Obituary: Vice Admiral Sir Peter Compston]
Daily Telegraph, 4 September 2000 He was appointed Commanding Officer of the
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...
HMS ''Orwell'' in 1955, naval
attaché
In diplomacy, an attaché () is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified ac ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1960 and Commanding Officer of the
aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...
in 1962.
[ ''Victorious'' was under Compston's command during service in the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation.][ He was promoted to ]rear admiral
Rear admiral is a flag officer rank used by English-speaking navies. In most European navies, the equivalent rank is called counter admiral.
Rear admiral is usually immediately senior to commodore and immediately below vice admiral. It is ...
on 7 January 1965, went on to be naval attaché in Washington D. C. in 1965, Flag Officer Flotillas Western Fleet in 1967 and Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic in 1968.[ He retired in 1970.][
]
Family
In 1939 he married Valerie Marjorie Bocquet; they had one son and one daughter.[ Following the dissolution of his first marriage, he married Angela Brickwood in 1954.][
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Compston, Peter
1915 births
2000 deaths
People educated at Epsom College
Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
Royal Navy vice admirals
Royal Navy officers of World War II