Charles Norris (Royal Navy officer)

Vice Admiral Sir Charles Fred Wivell Norris KBE CB DSO (16 December 1900 – 17 December 1989) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Far East Fleet.

Sir Charles Norris
Birth name	Charles Fred Wivell Norris
Born	16 December 1900 Erith, Kent[1][2]
Died	17 December 1989 (aged 89)
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1913–1956
Rank	Vice Admiral
Commands held	Far East Fleet
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companion of the Order of the Bath Distinguished Service Order

Naval career

Norris joined the Royal Navy in 1913.[3] He served in World War I and took part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916.[3] After the War he became a student at Cambridge University.[3]

He also served in World War II as Second in Command of HMS Sheffield and then as Commander on HMS Bellona from 1943.[3] He took part in the Normandy landings on Omaha Beach in 1944 and in the Murmansk Convoys in the Winter 1944 to 1945.[3]

In 1948 he became Captain of the Fleet for the Home Fleet and in 1950 he was appointed Director of Naval Training and Deputy Chief of Naval Personnel, (Training) at the Admiralty.[3] He was made Flag Officer Flotillas, Mediterranean,[4] at Malta in 1953 and Commander-in-Chief, East Indies in 1954; he retired in 1956.[3]

In retirement he became a Director of the British Productivity Council.[5]

References

1. 1901 England Census
2. London, England, Freedom of the City Admission Papers, 1681–1930
3. Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives
4. "Who Was Who". Who's Who & Who Was Who. Oxford: A & C Black and Oxford University Press. 1 December 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u167657. |chapter= ignored (help)
5. Time and Motion Study Volume 7 Issue 2

Further reading

• "Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Norris", The Times (London), 4 January 1990, p. 14.