{{Short description|Royal Navy Admiral (1885–1954)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Admiral |name = Sir Guy Royle |honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB|CMG}} |image= Vice Admiral Royle WWII IWM A 20781.jpg |alt= |caption= Vice-Admiral Royle as Chief of Australian Naval Staff during the Second World War |birth_name=Guy Charles Cecil Royle |birth_date= {{Birth date|1885|08|17|df=yes}} |death_date= {{Death date and age|1954|01|04|1885|08|17|df=yes}} |birth_place= Esher, Surrey |death_place= Ferndown, Dorset |burial_place= |nickname= |allegiance= United Kingdom |branch= Royal Navy |service_years= 1900–1946 |rank= Admiral |service_number= |unit= |commands= Chief of the Australian Naval Staff (1941–45)<br/>{{HMS|Glorious}} (1933–34)<br/>{{HMS|Excellent|shore establishment|6}} (1930–32)<br/>{{HMS|Canterbury|1915|6}} (1927–29) |battles= First World War<br/>Second World War |awards= Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath<br/>Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George<br/>Legion of Merit (United States)<br/>Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands) |relations= |other_work= }} Admiral '''Sir Guy Charles Cecil Royle''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KCB|CMG}} (17 August 1885 – 4 January 1954) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Fifth Sea Lord and First Naval Member of the Royal Australian Navy.

==Naval career== Royle joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1900.<ref name=churchill>Winston Churchill, ed. Martin Gilbert, ''The Churchill War Papers: At the Admiralty, September 1939 – May 1940'' (1993), p. 354</ref> He served in the First World War as Gunnery Officer on the battleship {{HMS|Marlborough|1912|6}} and was at the Battle of Jutland in 1916,<ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/ROYLE.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives]</ref> then on the staff of Admiral Sir Charles Madden in the Grand Fleet.<ref name=lh/> By 1919 he had been promoted commander and in July 1919 was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George "for valuable services as Gunnery officer of H. M. S. "Marlborough", 1st Battle Squadron, and as Flag Commander to the Admiral, Second in Command, Grand Fleet."<ref>''London Gazette'', Issue 31461 (supplement), 15 July 1919, [http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/31461/supplements/9107 Page 9107]</ref>

Royle was appointed Assistant to the Deputy Director of Naval Ordnance in 1923 and became Naval attaché in Tokyo in 1924.<ref name=lh/> He was given command of the cruiser {{HMS|Canterbury|1915|6}} in 1927, the shore establishment {{HMS|Excellent|shore establishment|6}} in 1930 and the aircraft carrier {{HMS|Glorious}} in 1933.<ref name=lh/> He went on to be Naval Secretary from 1934 and to 1937, when he was appointed Vice Admiral commanding the aircraft carriers, serving until 1939. In the Second World War, he returned briefly as Naval Secretary from September to November, 1939, then until 1941 was Fifth Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Air Service, when he became First Naval Member of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board; he retired the service in 1946.<ref name=churchill/><ref name=lh/>

Royle was knighted in 1941 and promoted admiral in 1942.<ref name=churchill/>

In retirement he was appointed briefly as Secretary to the Lord Great Chamberlain and finally as Yeoman Usher (deputy) of the Black Rod,<ref>[https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1953/dec/09/house-of-lords-offices House of Lords Offices] Hansard, 9 December 1953</ref> a ceremonial position in the House of Lords, serving in that office from 1946 to 1953.<ref>[http://www.portcullis.parliament.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Persons&dsqSearch=Code=='469'&dsqCmd=Show.tcl Black Rod, 1361- ] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121209050138/http://www.portcullis.parliament.uk/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Persons&dsqSearch=Code=='469'&dsqCmd=Show.tcl |date=9 December 2012 }} at parliament.uk, retrieved 23 November 2010</ref> He collapsed and died while putting out a heath fire near his home at Wimborne Minster in Dorset.<ref>[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1954/1954%20-%200170.html?search=ep-3%20aries%20ii Admiral Sir Guy Royle] Flight International, 15 January 1954</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box |title = Naval Secretary |before = Sidney Meyrick |after = William Whitworth |years = 1934–1937 }} {{succession box |title = Fifth Sea Lord |before = Sir Alexander Ramsay |after = Sir Lumley Lyster |years = 1939–1941 }} {{succession box |title = Chief of the Australian Naval Staff| |before = Sir Ragnar Colvin |after = Sir Louis Hamilton |years = 1941–1945 }} {{s-end}} {{Chief of Navy (Australia)}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Royle, Guy}} Category:1885 births Category:1954 deaths Category:Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Foreign recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Lords of the Admiralty Category:People educated at Stubbington House School Category:Royal Navy admirals of World War II Category:Royal Navy officers of World War I Category:Admiralty personnel of World War II Category:Military personnel from Surrey Category:Military personnel from Dorset Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel Category:Naval attachés for the United Kingdom Category:Royal Navy admirals