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<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Royal Navy officer (1905–1981)}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}<br />
{{Infobox military person<br />
|name= Sir Walter Couchman<br />
|image= <br />
|image_size= <br />
|alt= <br />
|caption= <br />
|nickname= <br />
|birth_date= {{birth date|1905|03|19|df=yes}}<br />
|birth_place= [[Madras]], India<br />
|death_date= {{death date and age|1981|05|02|1905|03|19|df=yes}}<br />
|death_place= [[Sudbury, Suffolk|Sudbury]], England<br />
|placeofburial= <br />
|allegiance= United Kingdom<br />
|branch= [[Royal Navy]]<br />
|serviceyears= 1918–1960<br />
|rank= [[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]]<br />
|unit= <br />
|commands= [[Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (United Kingdom)|Vice Chief of the Naval Staff]] (1960)<br/>[[Flag Officer, Air (Home)]] (1957–60)<br/>{{HMS|Glory|R62|6}} (1946)<br/>{{HMS|Broke|D83|6}} (1941–42)<br/>{{HMS|Veteran|D72|6}} (1940–41)<br />
|battles= [[Second World War]]<br />
|awards= [[Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath]]<br/>[[Commander of the Royal Victorian Order]]<br/>[[Distinguished Service Order]]<br/>[[Officer of the Order of the British Empire]]<br />
|relations= <br />
|laterwork= <br />
}}<br />
[[Admiral (Royal Navy)|Admiral]] '''Sir Walter Thomas Couchman''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KCB|CVO|DSO|OBE}} (19 March 1905 – 2 May 1981) was a [[Royal Navy]] officer who served as [[Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (United Kingdom)|Vice Chief of the Naval Staff]] from February to November 1960, when he retired from service.<br />
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==Early life==<br />
The son of Malcolm Edward Couchman, a civil servant in [[British India]], and Emily Elizabeth Ranking, Walter Couchman was born in [[Madras]] in 1905.<ref name="unithistories">{{cite web |url=https://www.unithistories.com/officers/RN_officersC2a.html |title=Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939-1945 - COND to COXO |last1=Houterman |first1=Hans |last2=Koppes |first2=Jeroen |website=www.unithistories.com |access-date=27 June 2021}}</ref><br />
Educated at the [[Royal Naval College, Osborne]], Couchman joined the [[Royal Navy]] and specialized in naval aviation,<ref name=times>[http://www.archerfamily.org.uk/obituary/couchman_w.html Obituary:Admiral Sir Walter Couchman]</ref> after training at the [[Britannia Royal Naval College]], [[Dartmouth, Devon|Dartmouth]].<ref name="unithistories"/><br />
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==Naval career==<br />
Couchman attended staff college at the [[Royal Naval College, Greenwich]] in 1928 and qualified as a naval pilot in 1935.<ref name="unithistories"/><br />
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He served in the [[Second World War]] as Commander in the Air Materials Division and then as Commanding Officer of the [[destroyer]] {{HMS|Veteran|D72|6}}.<ref name=times/> In 1941 he was appointed Staff Officer (Plans) for the [[Mediterranean Fleet]].<ref name=times/> Later in the War he became Naval Assistant (Underwater Weapons) and then Chief Staff Officer to the Flag Officer Air (Home).<ref name=times/><br />
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After the War he became Captain of the [[aircraft carrier]] {{HMS|Glory|R62|6}} and then, from 1947, Director of Naval Air Organisation and Training at the [[British Admiralty|Admiralty]].<ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/COUCHMAN.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives]</ref><br />
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He went on to be [[Flag Officer, Flying Training]] in 1951,<ref name=lh/> in which role he led the Fleet Air Arm [[flypast]] of 327 aircraft at the [[Coronation of Elizabeth II#Coronation review of the fleet|Coronation review of the fleet]], flying a [[de Havilland Sea Vampire]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Hobbs |first=David |date=2015 |title=The British Carrier Strike Fleet after 1945 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n7bNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT127 |location=Barnsley |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |chapter=6. A Royal Occasion and the Radical Review |isbn=978-1526785442}}</ref> He was then appointed Flag Officer, Heavy Squadron in 1953, [[Flag Officer, Carriers|Flag Officer, Aircraft Carriers]] in 1954 and Deputy Controller of Supplies (Air) at the [[Ministry of Supply]] in 1955.<ref name=lh/> He became [[Flag Officer, Air (Home)]] in 1957 and [[Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (United Kingdom)|Vice Chief of the Naval Staff]] in 1960.<ref name=times/> He retired in November 1960.<ref name=times/><br />
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==Family==<br />
He married Phyllida Connellan;<ref>[http://www.turtlebunbury.com/family/bunburyfamily_bunburys/bunbury_family_bunburys_johnstown.html Bunbury family history]</ref> they had a son and two daughters.<ref name="unithistories"/> Following the dissolution of his first marriage, he married Hughe Thelma Hunter Blair née Reid in 1965.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Beauclerk Dewar|title=Burke's Landed Gentry the Kingdom in Scotland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wEFuRPsYHwwC&pg=PA75|year=2001|publisher=Burke's Peerage and Gentry|isbn=978-0-9711966-0-5|page=75}}</ref> After the death of Hughe in 1972, he married Daphne Harvey, the widow of a naval captain.<ref name="unithistories"/><br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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==External links==<br />
*{{cite web |url=https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205090902 |title=THE ROYAL NAVY IN THE POST WAR PERIOD |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=www.iwm.org.uk |publisher=Imperial War Museum |access-date=27 June 2021}} - photograph of Couchman on promotion to admiral in 1959, seated in the cockpit of a [[Hawker Sea Hawk]].<br />
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{{succession box|title=[[Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (United Kingdom)|Vice Chief of the Naval Staff]]|before=[[Caspar John|Sir Caspar John]]|after=[[Varyl Begg|Sir Varyl Begg]]|years=1960}}<br />
{{end}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Couchman, Walter}}<br />
[[Category:1905 births]]<br />
[[Category:1981 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:People from Chennai]]<br />
[[Category:Royal Navy admirals]]<br />
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath]]<br />
[[Category:Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order]]<br />
[[Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order]]<br />
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]<br />
[[Category:Royal Navy officers of World War II]]<br />
[[Category:Lords of the Admiralty]]<br />
[[Category:People educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne]]<br />
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]<br />
[[Category:British people in colonial India]]</div>Bot