Stephen Hope Carlill


Sir Stephen Hope Carlill was a Royal Navy admiral who served as the last British Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy from 1955 to 1958, when he was succeeded by Vice-Admiral Ram Dass Katari.

Early life and career

Carlill was born in Orpington, Kent, the son of Harold Flamenk Carlill, a civil servant, and Beatrice Newton Hope. He was educated at the Royal Naval colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth, and was commissioned as an Acting Sub-Lieutenant in 1923. From 1923 to 1926 he served aboard HMS Ramillies and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1925. In 1927 he served aboard the minelayer HMS Adventure. From 1928 to 1930, Carlill studied gunnery at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich and aboard HMS Excellent from 1929 to 1930. He served as 2nd Gunnery Officer on the cruiser in the Atlantic Fleet from 1930 to 1931.
From 1932 to 1935, he served as gunnery officer on the cruiser HMS Dunedin and as squadron gunnery officer for the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy. Carlill was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander in 1933, and returned to Portsmouth from 1935 to 1936 to further study gunnery aboard HMS Excellent. From 1936 to 1937, he served as a gunnery officer on the battlecruiser in the Mediterranean and was promoted to Commander in July 1937. He subsequently served as Squadron Gunnery Officer for the Mediterranean Fleet aboard the cruiser HMS Galatea until August 1939.
During the Second World War, Carlill was successively given command of three ships:
After World War II, Carlill served various ship and land roles:
Following his service in the Indian Navy, Carlill retired from the Royal Navy on 7 July 1959. He served as representative in Ghana of West Africa Committee 1960-1966 and as adviser to West Africa Committee, 1966-1967.

Personal life

Carlill was married in 1928 to Julie Fredrike Elisabeth Hildegard, only daughter of late Reverend W. Rahlenbeck of Westphalia. The Carlills had two sons, one, Admiral James Michael Rahlenbeck Carlill ), also served in the Royal Navy. Carlill died at Colwall, Malvern, Worcestershire in 1996.