{{Short description|Royal Navy Vice Admiral (1907–1990)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Vice-Admiral | name = Sir Michael Villiers | honorific_suffix = KCB OBE | office = Lieutenant Governor of Jersey | term_start = 1964 | term_end = 1969 | predecessor = Sir George Erskine | successor = Sir John Davis | image = | caption = | nickname = | birth_date = 22 June 1907 | death_date = {{death date and age|1 January 1990|22 June 1907}} | birth_place = Greenwich, London | death_place = Melton, Suffolk | education = Oundle School | alma_mater = Royal Naval College, Dartmouth | parents = Edward Cecil Villiers<br>Anne Gordon Haynes-Smith | spouse = {{marriage|Rosemary Salwey Grissell<br>|3 November 1936||reason=}} | children = 2 | relations = Sir William Haynes-Smith (grandfather) | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = Royal Navy | service_years = 1935–64 | rank = Vice-Admiral | unit = | commands = Chief of the New Zealand Naval Staff (1958–60)<br/>{{HMS|Bulwark|R08|6}} (1954–57)<br/>{{HMS|Snipe|U20|6}} (1946–47)<br/>{{HMS|Ursa|R22|6}} (1945) | battles = Second World War | mawards = Mentioned in Despatches | laterwork = }} Vice-Admiral '''Sir John Michael Villiers''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|KCB|OBE}} (22 June 1907 – 1 January 1990) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Fourth Sea Lord.
==Early life== Villiers was the third son of Rear Admiral Edward Cecil Villiers {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CMG}} (grandson of Thomas Hyde Villiers), and Anne Gordon Haynes-Smith, daughter of Sir William Frederick Haynes Smith, governor of Cyprus.<ref name="burke">{{cite book |title= Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood|publisher=Burke's Peerage & Gentry |editor= Mosley, Charles |editor-link=Charles Mosley (genealogist) |edition=107 |year= 2003 |page= 799 |ref=Burke |isbn=0-9711966-2-1}}</ref>
He was and educated at Oundle School and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.<ref name=lh/>
==Naval career== Villiers joined the Royal Navy in 1935.<ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/VILLIERS.shtml Sir John Michael Villiers] Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives</ref> and then went onto the staff of the Experimental Signal School at Portsmouth in 1936.<ref name=lh/>
He served in the Second World War as Squadron Signal Officer and Flag Lieutenant to the Admiral commanding the Battle Cruiser Squadron and then transferred to the battleship {{HMS|Warspite|03|6}} in which he took part in the Norwegian campaign.<ref name=lh/> He joined the staff of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay for the planning of the invasion of Sicily in 1943 and then commanded the destroyer {{HMS|Ursa|R22|6}} in 1945.<ref name=lh/>
After the war he commanded {{HMS|Snipe|U20|6}} on the West Indies Station from 1946 and then joined the Directing Staff at the Joint Services Staff College from 1948.<ref name=lh/> He was appointed Assistant Director of Plans at the Admiralty in 1950 and Queen's Harbourmaster at Malta in 1952.<ref name=lh/> He commanded the aircraft carrier {{HMS|Bulwark|R08|6}} from 1954 and then became Chief of the Naval Staff for the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1958.<ref name=lh/> His last appointment was as Fourth Sea Lord and Vice Controller of the Navy in 1960 before he retired in 1964.<ref name=lh/>
===Later life=== After retiring from the Navy, he succeeded Sir George Erskine to become Lieutenant Governor of Jersey. He served three years until he was succeeded by Sir John Davis in 1969.<ref name="burke"/>
==Personal life== On 3 November 1936, Sir Michael married Rosemary Salwey Grissell, daughter of Lt.-Col. Bernard Salwey Grissell, who was killed in Palestine in the First World War, and the former Olive Mary Wood. Rosemary's sister, Veronica, a historian, was the wife of Lt-Col W. H. "Tich" Bamfield.<ref name="VBObit2000">{{cite news |title=Veronica Bamfield |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1341614/Veronica-Bamfield.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160227081055/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1341614/Veronica-Bamfield.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=27 February 2016 |accessdate=2 April 2020 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=7 June 2000}}</ref><ref name="IrishTimes2000">{{cite news |title=Historian who broke with the Raj conventions |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/historian-who-broke-with-the-raj-conventions-1.285627 |accessdate=2 April 2020 |newspaper=The Irish Times |date=24 June 2000 |language=en}}</ref> Together, they had two daughters:<ref name="burke"/>
* Valerie Anne Villiers (b. 1940), who married Vice Admiral Sir John Morrison Webster.<ref name="burke"/> * Camilla Rosemary Villiers (b. 1943), who married Richard Weston Warner, son of John Weston Warner.<ref name="burke"/>
Sir Michael died on 1 January 1990 in Melton, Suffolk.<ref>"Vice-Admiral Sir Michael Villiers", ''The Times'' (London), 10 January 1990, p. 14.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== *[https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw236901/Sir-John-Michael-Villiers Sir (John) Michael Villiers (1907-1990), Vice-Admiral] at the National Portrait Gallery, London *[https://archivesearch.lib.cam.ac.uk/repositories/9/resources/1882 The Papers of Vice Admiral Sir (John) Michael Villiers] held at Churchill Archives Centre
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box | title=Fourth Sea Lord and Vice Controller of the Navy | before=Sir Nicholas Copeman | after=Sir Raymond Hawkins | years=1960–1964}} {{succession box | title=Chief of the New Zealand Naval Staff | before=John McBeath | after=Peter Phipps | years=1958–1960}} |- {{s-gov}} {{s-bef|before=Sir George Erskine}} {{s-ttl|title=Lieutenant Governor of Jersey|years=1964–1969}} {{s-aft|after=Sir John Davis}} {{end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villiers, Michael}} Category:1907 births Category:1990 deaths Michael Category:People educated at Oundle School Category:Royal Navy vice admirals Category:Royal Navy officers of World War II Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:Lords of the Admiralty Category:Governors of Jersey Category:Military personnel from the Royal Borough of Greenwich Category:Graduates of Britannia Royal Naval College Category:People from Greenwich