Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Sir Edward Desmond Bewley McCarthy, (15 November 1893 – 8 June 1966) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic Station.

Naval career

Promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in 1935, McCarthy was the highest ranking British officer at the

Battle of Cape Passero The Battle of Cape Passaro, also known as Battle of Avola or Battle of Syracuse, was a major naval battle fought on 11 August 1718 between a fleet of the British Royal Navy under Admiral George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, Sir George Byng an ...

in 1940, and he commanded from 1940 and from 1943, taking part in

Operation Tungsten Operation Tungsten was a Second World War Royal Navy air raid that targeted the German battleship ''Tirpitz''. The operation sought to damage or destroy ''Tirpitz'' at her base in Kaafjord in the far north of Norway before she could become ...

against the German battleship ''Tirpitz'' in April 1944,U-boat.net: HMS Anson
/ref> and then becoming Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff in 1944.Desmond McCarthy
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives After the war he was appointed Rear Admiral, Destroyers in the

Mediterranean Fleet The British Mediterranean Fleet, also known as the Mediterranean Station, was a formation of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between t ...

and then Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic Station from 1948. He retired in 1950.

Personal life

Despite having an Irish (the

MacCarthy dynasty MacCarthy ( ga, Mac Cárthaigh), also spelled Macarthy, McCarthy or McCarty, is an Irish clan originating from Munster, an area they ruled during the Middle Ages. It was divided into several great branches; the MacCarthy Reagh, MacCarthy of Musk ...

were the

Kings of Munster The kings of Munster ( ga, Rí Mumhan), ruled from the establishment of Kingdom of Munster, Munster during the Irish Iron Age, until the High Middle Ages. According to Gaelic traditional history, laid out in works such as the ''Book of Invasion ...

before the

Norman invasion The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...

) surname he considered himself an Englishman, and always "referred to himself as an Englishman." He spoke fluent Latin and Italian, and thought of Italy as his favorite foreign country. He found Mussolini "horrifying" and hoped Mussolini would not damage what he felt was Italy's positive reputation. He was particularly disturbed by the lurid details he heard about Cesar More's occupation of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. Many of his Italian friends in London were educators and pro-democracy activists who had to flee Italy due to the fascist regime. In 1925, McCarthy married Agatha Kentish, daughter of Brigadier General Horace John James Kentish. They had two sons.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mccarthy, Desmond 1893 births 1966 deaths Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Military personnel from Hampstead Royal Navy admirals of World War II Royal Navy personnel of World War I