Stanley McArdle

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Rear Admiral Stanley Lawrence McArdle was born on September 27 1922 at Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire, the son of a colour sergeant in the Royal Marines, and was educated at the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook. He joined HMS St Vincent at Gosport in 1938 as a boy seaman, 2nd class.

McArdle saw service worldwide as a torpedoman before being the only successful candidate at a fleet board for promotion to officer in Colombo at the end of the war. In January 1953 he was awarded a George Medal for his part in HMS Contest's rescue of survivors from the ferry MV Princess Victoria. He trained the naval guard for King George VI's funeral in 1952, for which he was appointed MVO, and commanded the Bay-class frigate Burghead Bay on the South Atlantic station in 1957.

Contemporaries agree the report on McArdle in 1965, when he was in command of the frigate HMS Mohawk (F125), was typical of his entire career: "A most efficient commanding officer who has run a well-organised and happy ship very successfully. An officer of particular dynamism and energy, a vigorous, positive man of action who sets a first class example to his team."

He served in the directorate of Naval Operations and Trade at the Admiralty in 1969, and commanded the guided missile destroyer HMS Glamorgan (D19) the following year.

McArdle understood sailors, and when one appeared at his table for the award of a Long Service and Good Conduct medal, which was accompanied by a £20 gratuity, he would flourish a new note from his wallet (while the ship's purser skulked in the passageway to complete the necessary forms and to obtain a signature).

Sailors enjoyed this theatre, which led to his becoming Director General Personal Services and Training until 1977. His last appointment was as Flag Officer and Port Admiral Portsmouth, when he was made CB.

In retirement, McArdle was a director of British Bus and Endless Holdings, a Justice of the Peace and a commissioner of taxes as well as a governor of Godolphin School, Salisbury.

"Mac" McArdle married Joyce Cummins during the war and then Jennifer Goddard. He died on 4th December, 2007.