Vice Admiral Sir John Osler Chattock Hayes KCB OBE DL (9 May 1913 – 7 September 1998) 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 became

Naval Secretary The Naval Secretary is the Royal Navy officer who advises the First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff on naval officer appointing (and General Officers). Their counterpart in the British Army is the Military Secretary. The Royal Air Force equiv ...

Naval career

Educated at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, Hayes joined the

in 1927.Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
/ref> He served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a Navigation Officer on

HMS Repulse Twelve ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS ''Repulse'': * was a 50-gun galleon also known as ''Due Repulse'', launched in 1595 and in the records until 1645. * was a 32-gun fifth rate, originally the . She was captured in 1759 by and fo ...

and survived her sinking by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese air attack in December 1941.Obituary: Admiral Sir John Hayes
''The Independent'', 29 September 1998 He then became naval liaison officer to the 2nd Battalion, the

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

and was present at the surrender of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and in February 1942 and then saw the disintegration of

Convoy PQ 17 PQ 17 was the code name for an Allied Arctic convoy during the Second World War. On 27 June 1942, the ships sailed from Hvalfjörður, Iceland, for the port of Arkhangelsk in the Soviet Union. The convoy was located by German forces on 1 July, aft ...

on its way to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

as 23 of its 36 ships were lost in July 1942. He was appointed Captain at the Training Establishment HMS ''St Vincent'' in 1955.Senior Royal Navy Appointments
He became Commodore at the Royal Naval Barracks at Devonport in 1960 and

in 1962 before becoming Flag Officer (Flotillas) for the

Home Fleet The Home Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy that operated from the United Kingdom's territorial waters from 1902 with intervals until 1967. In 1967, it was merged with the Mediterranean Fleet creating the new Western Fleet. Before the First ...

in 1964. Following promotion to vice admiral on 29 September 1965, he was appointed Flag Officer, Scotland and Northern Ireland in 1966. He retired in 1968. In retirement he was appointed Chairman of the

Cromarty Firth The Cromarty Firth (; gd, Caolas Chrombaidh ; literally "kyles /nowiki>straits.html"_;"title="strait.html"_;"title="/nowiki>strait">/nowiki>straits">strait.html"_;"title="/nowiki>strait">/nowiki>straitsof_Cromarty.html" ;"title="strait">/no ...

Port Authority. He also became

Lord Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty The Lord Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty, is the British monarch's personal representative in an area which has been defined since 1975 as consisting of the local government districts of Ross and Cromarty and Skye and Lochalsh in Scotland, and t ...

Family

In 1939 he married The Hon Rosalind Finlay, daughter of

William Finlay, 2nd Viscount Finlay William Finlay, 2nd Viscount Finlay, (15 October 1875 – 30 June 1945) was a British judge and peer who served as a Lord Justice of Appeal from 1938 to 1945. The son of Lord Chancellor Finlay, William Finlay was educated at Eton and Trinit ...

; they had two sons and one daughter.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, John Osler Chattock 1913 births 1998 deaths Royal Navy vice admirals Royal Navy officers of World War II Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Officers of the Order of the British Empire Lord-Lieutenants of Ross and Cromarty