Roderick Douglas Macdonald

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Sir Roderick "Roddy" Douglas Macdonald , KBE (born February 25, 1921 in Java ; † January 19, 2001 ) was a British Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy , who was last Chief of Staff of the Allied Naval Forces of NATO in Southern Europe between 1976 and 1979 (NAVSOUTH ) was.

Life

Training as a naval officer and World War II

In 1953 Macdonald took over as commandant of the corvette HMS Leeds Castle, his first own ship command

Macdonald graduated from Fettes College in Edinburgh and was the captain of the Scottish rugby school team in 1938 . He joined the Royal Navy in 1939 as a midshipman and completed his training on the training ships HMS Frobisher and HMS Vindictive . After he became a Midshipman ( Midshipman ) the light cruiser HMS Belfast placed before this in November 1939 by a German sea mine in the Firth of Forth was heavily damaged. He then served on the coal steamship HMS Lunar Bow and undertook patrols in front of the Scapa Flow naval base .

During the Second World War he took part in various naval and convoy missions in the Atlantic Ocean off Norway and later in the Mediterranean Sea in the spring of 1940 on the battleship HMS Valiant under the command of Captain Bernard Rawlings, together with his fellow trainee Terence Lewin . It was then used between 1941 and 1943 on the destroyer HMS Fortune , which was used in the Indian Ocean . He then served between 1943 and 1946 on the destroyer escort HMS Meynell , the destroyer HMS Goathland and the destroyer HMS Cockade .

Post-war period, deployments in Cyprus and Borneo

After the end of the war, he found employment as a naval and staff officer in various naval units and was, among other things, officer trainer on the battleship HMS Vanguard before he took over his first command of the corvette HMS Leeds Castle in 1953 . He was then a frigate captain (Commander) in command of the minesweepers HMS Esserton and HMS Walkerton and a senior officer in the 104th minesweeping squadron in the Mediterranean . During this time he was mentioned in the war report for his services on patrol trips between January 1 and June 30, 1958 off Cyprus ( Mentioned in dispatches ) . In 1959, he took over the newly created post at the Isle of Portland naval base as commander for naval training on the staff of the flag officer for naval training and as such was responsible for basic and advanced training for ship crews in the Royal Navy, but also on ships in other NATO countries. After that, he was commander of the 1,961 newly commissioned U-hunting - frigate HMS Falmouth .

After his promotion to captain at sea (Captain) Macdonald was in 1965 Commander of the Naval Forces in Borneo (Commander, Naval Forces and Joint Force Commander, Borneo) . During this use he took part against Indonesia together with naval units from Australia , New Zealand and Malaysia in order to prevent the power of the President of Indonesia Sukarno on Sarawak , Sabah and Brunei . The main task of the naval units was to support the land forces and to patrol the coasts. As director of operations, he was temporarily responsible for the operational control of the five brigades and the tactical air force. For his services there he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on May 16, 1967 .

Promotion to Vice Admiral

Macdonald was the first in command of the destroyer HMS Bristol, which entered service on March 31, 1973

Then Macdonald was between 1968 and 1969 commander of the destroyer associations of the squadron stationed in Londonderry (Londonderry Squadron) and from 1969 to the end of 1970 commander of the 1st frigate squadron (First Frigate Squadron) of the Far East Fleet . In 1971 he became Captain of the Fleet Adjutant of the first commander -in- chief of the CINCFLEET , Fleet Admiral Edward Ashmore , and in 1972 he became the commander of the destroyer HMS Bristol , which officially entered service on March 31, 1973.

After his promotion to Rear Admiral (Rear Admiral) in 1973, he was Chief of Staff of the Navy home associations (Naval Home Command) and held this post until 1976. During this time he was at the same time in 1975 aide-de-camp of Queen Elizabeth II. After that he was as Vice Admiral (Vice Admiral) 1976 Chief of Staff of the Allied Naval Forces of NATO in Southern Europe NAVSOUTH (Allied Naval Forces Southern Europe) and exercised this position until his retirement in 1979. During this time, he was beaten on January 1, 1978 to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) and has since had the suffix "Sir".

He was also involved in the British Beacon Administration ( Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond ) , of which he was Vice President between 1976 and 1985. He was also active as a painter and created numerous drawings and paintings as well as illustrations for books. He was also Chieftain of the Highland Games on the Isle of Skye and trustee of the Clan Donald Lands Trust .

Macdonald married Joan Willis' first marriage in 1943. This marriage, which was divorced in 1980, produced three sons. In 1980 he married Pamela Bartosik for the second time.

Publications

  • Your Ship , 1970
  • The Figurehead , 1993

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ London Gazette . No. 41511, HMSO, London, September 30, 1958, p. 5974 ( PDF , accessed May 21, 2017, English).
  2. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 44311, HMSO, London, May 12, 1967, p. 5453 ( PDF , accessed May 21, 2017, English).
  3. ↑ top commanding the naval home associations (Commander-in-Chief, Naval Home Command) were at that time from 1972 to 1974 Admiral Andrew Mackenzie Lewis , 1974-1975 Admiral Derek Empson and 1975-1976 Admiral Terence Lewin .
  4. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 47418, HMSO, London, December 30, 1977, p. 5 ( PDF , accessed May 21, 2017, English).
personal data
SURNAME Macdonald, Roderick Douglas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Roddy Macdonald (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Vice Admiral
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Java
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 2001