Manley Laurence Power

Born the son of Admiral Sir Laurence E. Power KCB, CVO, Power was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth, becoming a Royal Navy officer cadet in 1917.[1] In the early part of his career, he served mainly in submarines, attaining his first command (HMS H32) in 1933.[2]

In 1939 he was promoted to Commander and appointed as Staff Officer (Operations) to the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham.[2]

A convalescent Winston Churchill meets the outgoing and incoming Supreme Commanders in the Mediterranean, Dwight D. Eisenhower, to Churchill's right, and Henry Maitland Wilson, to his left. Behind them stand (from left to right), John Whiteley, Air Marshal Arthur Tedder, Brigadier G. S. Thompson, Admiral Sir John Cunningham, unknown, Sir Harold Alexander, Captain M. L. Power, Humfrey Gale, Leslie Hollis, and Eisenhower's chief of staff, Walter Bedell Smith.

In 1942, he was given command of HMS Opportune,[2] escorting Arctic convoys, before returning as Staff Officer (Operations) in the Mediterranean in September 1942,[2] in preparation for the invasion of North Africa and then became Staff Officer (Plans), on the staff of Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean in January 1943,[2] assisting the planning of the invasion of Sicily. He was promoted to Captain in 1943, and Deputy Chief of Staff (Plans), and stayed in the Mediterranean until March 1944, planning the invasion of Italy and the Anzio landings.[2]

Power became captain of the 26th Destroyer Flotilla in April 1944,[2] taking part in the Normandy landings, and as captain of the destroyer HMS Myngs[2] participated in an action to destroy an enemy convoy off the Norwegian coast in November 1944. He was then appointed to command HMS Saumarez in the Eastern Fleet,[2] and his flotilla destroyed the Japanese cruiser Haguro in May 1945.[3]

Following the war, Power served as Deputy Director of Plans in the Admiralty between January and July 1946,[2] then as Senior Naval Member of the Directing Staff at the Joint Services Staff College,[2] later becoming commander of the Portland (Dorset) naval base.[2] Following this he served as Flag Captain to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet (Admiral Sir Philip Vian),[2] then in May 1952 as Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean (Admiral 1st Lord Mountbatten of Burma).[2] He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1953, and in the following year was appointed Senior Naval Member of the Directing Staff of the Imperial Defence College.[2] Promoted to vice-admiral, he became Flag Officer, Aircraft Carriers in 1956[2] and Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff and Fifth Sea Lord in 1957.[2] Promoted to admiral in 1960, his final appointments were as Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth and Allied Commander-in-Chief, Channel in 1959 before retiring in 1961.[2]

He married Barbara Alice Mary Topham in 1930 and the couple had a daughter and a son.[2]

• The Memoirs of Admiral Sir Manley Power held at Churchill Archive Centre