R.I.P. Rear-Admiral Linley Middleton

Rear-Admiral Linley Middleton, who has died aged 83, was the last captain of the strike carrier Hermes, flagship of the Task Force which won the Falklands conflict 30 years ago.Middleton was appointed in 1980, while she was being refitted at Portsmouth with a 12-degree ski-jump to operate Sea Harriers . But in June 1981, a few months after she had emerged from the dockyard, Middleton learned that under the 1982 Defence Review his ship was to be scrapped. It required all Middleton’s leadership skills to reconcile his crew to this development, and he had just sent the ship’s company and the aircrew on Easter leave when Argentina invaded the Falklands. Middleton returned from his holiday in the Mediterranean, and in the course of a single weekend recalled his crew and stored his ship so that she was ready to sail three days later, on April 5 1982.Read More HERE

Stand at ease Sir R.I.P.