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Walter Couchman
Sir Walter Couchman | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 March 1905 Madras, India |
| Died | 2 May 1981 (aged 76) Sudbury, England |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/ | Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1918–1960 |
| Rank | Admiral |
| Commands held | Vice Chief of the Naval Staff (1960) Flag Officer, Air (Home) (1957–60) HMS Glory (1946) HMS Broke (1941–42) HMS Veteran (1940–41) |
| Battles/wars | Second World War |
| Awards | Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Royal Victorian Order Distinguished Service Order Officer of the Order of the British Empire |
Admiral Sir Walter Thomas Couchman, KCB, CVO, DSO, OBE (19 March 1905 – 2 May 1981) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Vice Chief of the Naval Staff from February to November 1960, when he retired from service.
Early life[edit | edit source]
The son of Malcolm Edward Couchman, a civil servant in British India, and Emily Elizabeth Ranking, Walter Couchman was born in Madras in 1905.[1] Educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, Couchman joined the Royal Navy and specialized in naval aviation,[2] after training at the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.[1]
[edit | edit source]
Couchman attended staff college at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1928 and qualified as a naval pilot in 1935.[1]
He served in the Second World War as Commander in the Air Materials Division and then as Commanding Officer of the destroyer HMS Veteran.[2] In 1941 he was appointed Staff Officer (Plans) for the Mediterranean Fleet.[2] Later in the War he became Naval Assistant (Underwater Weapons) and then Chief Staff Officer to the Flag Officer Air (Home).[2]
After the War he became Captain of the aircraft carrier HMS Glory and then, from 1947, Director of Naval Air Organisation and Training at the Admiralty.[3]
He went on to be Flag Officer, Flying Training in 1951,[3] in which role he led the Fleet Air Arm flypast of 327 aircraft at the Coronation review of the fleet, flying a de Havilland Sea Vampire.[4] He was then appointed Flag Officer, Heavy Squadron in 1953, Flag Officer, Aircraft Carriers in 1954 and Deputy Controller of Supplies (Air) at the Ministry of Supply in 1955.[3] He became Flag Officer, Air (Home) in 1957 and Vice Chief of the Naval Staff in 1960.[2] He retired in November 1960.[2]
Family[edit | edit source]
He married Phyllida Connellan;[5] they had a son and two daughters.[1] Following the dissolution of his first marriage, he married Hughe Thelma Hunter Blair née Reid in 1965.[6] After the death of Hughe in 1972, he married Daphne Harvey, the widow of a naval captain.[1]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Houterman, Hans; Koppes, Jeroen. "Royal Navy (RN) Officers 1939-1945 - COND to COXO". www.unithistories.com. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Obituary:Admiral Sir Walter Couchman
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
- ↑ Hobbs, David (2015). "6. A Royal Occasion and the Radical Review". The British Carrier Strike Fleet after 1945. Barnsley: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1526785442.
- ↑ Bunbury family history
- ↑ Peter Beauclerk Dewar (2001). Burke's Landed Gentry the Kingdom in Scotland. Burke's Peerage and Gentry. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-9711966-0-5.
External links[edit | edit source]
- "THE ROYAL NAVY IN THE POST WAR PERIOD". www.iwm.org.uk. Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 27 June 2021. - photograph of Couchman on promotion to admiral in 1959, seated in the cockpit of a Hawker Sea Hawk.
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Caspar John |
Vice Chief of the Naval Staff 1960 |
Succeeded by Sir Varyl Begg |
- 1905 births
- 1981 deaths
- People from Chennai
- Royal Navy admirals
- Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath
- Commanders of the Royal Victorian Order
- Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Royal Navy officers of World War II
- Lords of the Admiralty
- People educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne
- Military personnel of British India
- British people in colonial India