Peter Gretton

Vice-Admiral Sir Peter William Gretton, (27 August 1912 – 11 November 1992) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He was active in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War, and was a successful convoy escort commander. He eventually rose to become Fifth Sea Lord and retired as a vice admiral before entering university life as a bursar and academic.

Early career Gretton joined the Royal Navy as a cadet at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Dartmouth. He served in the aircraft carrier Courageous before seeing action in the cruiser HMS Durban during the Abyssinia crisis and the Spanish Civil War. From 22 April 1943 to 6 May 1943, Commander Gretton led Escort Group B7 in covering Convoy ONS 5, considered to be the turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic. On the return voyage Commander Gretton and Escort Group B7 successfully covered Convoy SC 130, with no losses to enemy action and an on-time arrival that allowed his wedding to happen as scheduled.

Gretton continued in command of Escort Group B7 until the summer of 1944, when it was disbanded as part of the preparations for Operation Neptune, the naval portion of the Normandy invasion. His next posting was to the Admiralty plans division, where he worked from 1944 to 1946.

Gretton served as the domestic bursar of University College, Oxford, from 1965 until 1971, and became a senior research fellow in 1971.

Personal life In 1943 he married Dorothy N. G. "Judy" Du Vivier. They had three sons and one daughter.

Works Convoy escort commander (1964; memoirs) Maritime strategy: a study of British defence problems (1965) Former Naval Person: Churchill and the navy (1968) (published as Winston Churchill and the Royal Navy in the US, 1969.)

Honours Gretton was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1936 for service during the Arab rebellion in Palestine, and was mentioned in dispatches in 1940 after the Second Battle of Narvik. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1941 Birthday Honours. He received the Distinguished Service Order and Two Bars; the first in 1942 for Operation Pedestal; the second in 1943 for the defence of ONS 5; and the third in late 1943 for the actions as support group leader.

For his postwar career he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1960 New Year Honours and advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1963 New Year Honours.