James Gordon (Royal Navy officer) James Gordon (Royal Navy officer) Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Alexander Gordon, GCB (6 October 1782 – 8 January 1869) was a Royal Navy officer. As a volunteer, he fought at the Battle of Groix, at the Battle of the Glorious First of June and at the Battle of Cape St Vincent during the French Revolutionary Wars and then, as a midshipman, served under Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile. Gordon became commanding officer of the 28-gun frigate which took part of a hard-fought action between three British ships and the combined forces of a
William O'Brien (Royal Navy officer) one son and two daughters. William O'Brien (Royal Navy officer) Admiral Sir William Donough O'Brien (13 November 1916 – 19 February 2016) was Commander-in-Chief of the Western Fleet. Educated at the Royal Naval College Dartmouth, O'Brien was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1930. He served in World War II during which he served with the naval escort of the fateful PQ-17 convoy. In the early 1960s he served as Director of Naval Plans at the Ministry of Defence under Lord Louis Mountbatten. He was then appointed Naval Secretary in 1964. He was appointed Flag Officer, Aircraft Carriers in 1966,