Admiral of the Fleet Sir Benjamin Bathurst GCB

Admiral of the Fleet Sir ‘Ben’ Bathurst, who has died aged 89, held flag rank in the Royal Navy for 12 critical years at the end of the Cold war, became Vice Chief of the Defence Staff and then First Sea Lord. This obituary by Peter Hore appeared first in the Telegraph on 13 October.

Ben Bathurst was promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1983 when he became Flag Officer, Second Flotilla, one of the Navy’s key seagoing commands, generally regarded as a prerequisite for high command. His first challenge came in the West Indies where he monitored but was unable to prevent the US invasion of Grenada. Next, he was Director-General, Naval Manpower and Training at the Ministry of Defence in 1985 where his task was to align manpower to the Defence budget.

He was promoted to Vice-Admiral in 1986 and appointed as Chief of Fleet Support during which he oversaw improvements in the cost controls measures in the dockyards and their eventual privatisation, and the introduction into service of the Trident missile system. He was also the only uniformed accounting officer who reported to the Public Accounts Committee, and he told the assembled MPs that that day was the anniversary of the execution of Admiral Byng, “pour encourager les autres” – and that after their grilling “Now I know how he felt.”

Bathurst was promoted to full Admiral and became Commander-in-Chief Fleet in 1989, with the additional NATO tasks of Commander-in-Chief, Channel and Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Atlantic, and was there during preparations for the First Gulf War.

After ministers had forced through a decision that Wrens should go to sea, and 30 women formed part of the complement of the frigate Brilliant which was about to deploy to the Persian Gulf to take part in Operation GRANBY at the start of the First Gulf War, Bathurst was called on behalf of ministers “who were rather worried and wondered whether another ship might be sent, rather than putting women in harm’s way.” He replied firmly that if he did that the whole concept of women-at-sea would be “dead in the water… ministers have said that they want this to happen and it’s a very good opportunity for them to find out the consequences of their decision.”

He also hosted an impromptu and successful visit by Prime Minister Thatcher to a nuclear submarine in the Clyde. She was on good form, the visit went well, and when Bathurst rang to the commanding officer to congratulate him, he was told that there was a problem onboard. “What’s that?” asked Bathurst, only to be told: “All my sailors are in love with the Prime Minister.”

With this background of tactical and operational command, and his experience of personnel management and logistics, Bathurst was an ideal candidate for Vice Chief of the Defence Staff, 1991-93. The VCDS had been made a full member in his own right as one of the chiefs-of-staff committee, the central staff reported to him, and he led in matters concerning the budget. His time in office coincided with a further round of financial stringency when the Conservative government sought another slice of the so-called ‘peace dividend’. Under Secretary of State for Defence Tom King and Minster of Defence Alan Clark and a savings round called Options for Change, and there were also changes in NATO command structure.

In 1993 Bathurst became First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff when his principal task was advice on the deployment of ships, the carrier force and its Sea Harriers, and Royal Marines in the Bosnian War.

Options for Change had not been fully implemented when ministers embarked on another round of cuts, Front Line First. The new Secretary of State, Malcolm Rifkind, was challenged by Ken Clarke to cut £3.2bn from the Defence budget over the next three years including £750m in the first year. Rifkind countered with an offer of £1bn in year one on the condition that the MoD would be permitted to retain the extra £250m for operational capability improvements. Under this rubric, Bathurst, ever alert to opportunity, was able to acquire Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles for the submarine force. He also prioritized keeping the naval college at Dartmouth open over running the Royal Yacht Britannia: “There was no way I could tell the fleet that I was prepared to spend money on manning the yacht and not on manning a frigate… I thought the yacht was rather super, but when it came to the choice between the yacht and a frigate, I had to choose the frigate.”

Although the press focused on what the Navy lost, Bathurst stressed that he had retained four SSBNs, three carriers, an amphibious capability, and a modern fleet of minehunters and that the Navy remained able to play in the first division.

When Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshall Sir Peter Harding’s affair with Lady Bienvenida Buck was exposed, Bathurst had little sympathy. At the least, Harding had been hypocritical, but Bathurst did not see himself as a potential successor. General Sir Peter Inge was appointed CDS in place of Harding, and, keen to ensure that the Navy should have the best shot at the next choice of CDS in approximately three years’ time, Bathurst generously foreshortened his own appointment in order to give Admiral Sir Jock Slater the best opportunity by succeeding him as First Sea Lord.

There was, however, a hiccup. Although Quen Elizabeth II had approved his promotion to Admiral of the Fleet, as was then the custom for retiring chiefs of staff, Rifkind had stopped all the five-star promotions as a savings measure. Bathurst was obliged to argue for 40 minutes with Rifkind and his private secretary until he won his case and thus became in 1995 the last promotion to five-star rank of any retiring chief of staff.

 David Benjamin Bathurst, always known as Ben, was scion of a family which for generations had served as administrators and officers in the British Empire and after whom places and pubs were named. Born on 27 May 1936, the son of Group Captain Peter Bathurst, a former stockbroker who joined the RAF in the mid-1930s, and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Ann Temple-Gore-Langton, he was educated at St Andrew’s prep in Pangbourne and at Eton before entering Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1953.

He recalled: “My early years were around the airfields of southern England until about 1940 when it was suggested that my mother went to Somerset to escape the bombs.”

As a midshipman under training, he served in the carrier Bulwark during the 1956 Suez Crisis. In the late 1950s he served in the submarines Sturdy and Talent at home, and in the minesweeper Woolaston in the Mediterranean, with patrols off Cyprus and a visit to Haifa. The experience was sufficient to persuade Bathurst that he wanted to fly and in 1960-62 he qualified on the Westland Whirlwind and Wessex helicopters.

In 1962-63 he was the pilot in the guided missile destroyer Devonshire on her first-of-class trials, which included a visit to Bathurst (now Banjul) capital of the Gambia. Bathurst’s flying talent was recognised, and he quickly qualified as an instructor and was sent on exchange to the Royal Australian Navy 1965-67.  He was reluctant to leave Australia and was tempted to transfer permanently to a small but expanding Navy. However, he returned to Britain to fly in 820 Naval Air Squadron in the carrier Eagle on her deployment to the Far East 1967-68 when she covered the withdrawal from Aden.

He commanded 819 NAS in Northern Ireland, and after a brief spell in the directorate of naval recruiting was appointed as second-in-command of the destroyer Norfolk under command of Captain Bill Cook, when one of his officers was Lieutenant the Prince of Wales. Bathurst recalled that it was fascinating having him as a 21-year-old young officer in the ship, trying to balance this business of being a naval officer against also being a member of the Royal Family. Unable to share a run-ashore with his wardroom messmates, Bathurst allowed the Prince to sleep at nearby Broadlands. He noted how naval life introduced the future King to ordinary people and their frailties: “He saw the rougher edges of life [and] it opened his eyes a little bit.”

In 1973-75 Bathurst was a desk officer in the Directorate of Naval Air Warfare where he wrote the staff requirement for what would become 15 years later the Merlin helicopter, and also staffed the Anglo-French agreement on the Lynx helicopter.

Promoted to captain, he commanded the frigate Ariadne (1975-76), and was Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lords Ashmore and then Lewin (1976-78), and in 1978-80 he commanded the frigate Minerva and the Fifth Frigate Squadron.

After studying at the Royal College of Defence Students in 1981, Bathurst returned to the MoD as Director of Naval Air Warfare during the Falklands War, and afterwards ensured that the lessons learned were applied in the Fleet Air Arm.

Seemingly diffident in manner and softly spoken, sometimes taciturn, Bathurst had a razor-sharp intellect which he tempered with a gentle sense of the absurd. He took a close interest in his proteges and people, writing in his immaculately neat hand to mark personal achievements and milestones, with genuine interest and without prejudice.

He also had a favourite briefcase, covered in Paddington bear-style travel stickers, and when his staff told him that they had under the table a farewell present which was black and shiny and very useful, he was disappointed to find that it was a new briefcase: “I had hoped for a Labrador puppy.”

In retirement Bathurst became a non-executive director of British International Helicopters, was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant and then Vice-Lord Lieutenant of Somerset, a younger brother of Trinity House and a Liveryman of Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. Appointed Knight Commander of the Order of Bath in 1987, he was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath in 1991.

Bathurst married Sarah Christian Pandora Peto, daughter of Major John Peto, in 1959. She survives him with a son, who is a lieutenant-general and governor of Gibraltar, and three daughters.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Ben Bathurst GCB , born May 27 1936, died October 12, 2025.