Royce de Mel

Rear Admiral
Royce de Mel
OBE
Born 1917
British Ceylon
Allegiance British Ceylon
Ceylon
Service/branch Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force
Ceylon Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Royal Ceylon Navy
Years of service 1940-1961
Rank Rear Admiral
Commands held Commander of the Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force
Commander of the Sri Lankan Navy
Awards Defense Medal
Burma Star

Rear Admiral Gerard Royce Maxwell De Mel OBE was 4th Commander of the Royal Ceylon Navy and the 2nd and last Commander of the Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force. He was the first Ceylonese as well the first Sinhalese commander of the navy and was appointed on 15 August 1955. De Mel was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1959, becoming the first serving officer to hold the rank. He retired on 15 August 1961 and was succeeded by Rajan Kadiragamar.[1][2]

His brother was Colonel Maurice de Mel, the Commandant of the Volunteer Force (second-in-command of the Army).[3] He was involved in the 1962 Ceylonese coup d'état attempt.

References

  1. "Past Commanders". navy.lk. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  2. "Sri Lanka Navy: Diamond Jubilee celebrations". navy.lk. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  3. "Joe-Pete '48 game a heart stopper". Daily News. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
Military offices
Preceded by
W. G. Beauchamp
Commander of the Ceylon Naval Volunteer Force
1938-1946
Succeeded by
Post Abolished
W. E. Banks
as Commander of the Royal Ceylon Navy
Preceded by
P. M. B. Chavasse
Commander of the Royal Ceylon Navy
1955-1960
Succeeded by
Rajan Kadiragamar
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/12/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.