Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral

Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...

 Sir Geoffrey William Roger Biggs KCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 (23 November 1938 – 29 June 2002) is a former Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 officer who became Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet

Commander-in-Chief Fleet

Commander-in-Chief Fleet is the admiral responsible for the operation, resourcing and training of the ships, submarines and aircraft, and personnel, of the British Royal Navy...

.

Naval career

Educated at Charterhouse

Charterhouse School

Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...

 and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth

Britannia Royal Naval College

Britannia Royal Naval College is the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy, located on a hill overlooking Dartmouth, Devon, England. While Royal Naval officer training has taken place in the town since 1863, the buildings which are seen today were only finished in 1905, and...

, Biggs joined the Royal Navy in 1958 and qualified as a submariner. He went on to command the submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 HMS Otus

HMS Otus (S18)

HMS Otus was a Royal Navy Oberon-class submarine. Built in 1962 at Scotts Yard in Greenock, Scotland, the sub's trials were conducted in Scottish waters, mainly Loch Long and Loch Fyne...

 and then the frigate

Frigate

A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...

 HMS Brilliant

HMS Brilliant (F90)

HMS Brilliant was a Type 22 frigate of the Royal Navy.She was part of the Task Force that took part in the Falklands War, with Captain John Coward in command...

. In the late 1970s he also commanded the submarine HMS Superb

HMS Superb (S109)

HMS Superb was a nuclear powered fleet submarine of the Swiftsure class serving in the Royal Navy.She was built by Vickers Shipbuilding Groups, now a division of BAE Systems Submarine Solutions. HMS Superb was launched on 30 November 1974 at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and commissioned into the...

 patrolling the Barents Sea

Barents Sea

The Barents Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of Norway and Russia. Known in the Middle Ages as the Murman Sea, the sea takes its current name from the Dutch navigator Willem Barents...

 above Norway. He was appointed Commanding Officer of HMS Broadsword

HMS Broadsword (F88)

HMS Broadsword was the lead ship and first Batch 1 unit of the Type 22 frigates of the Royal Navy.-Service:While on sea trials, Broadsword was called into service as the command ship during the large rescue operation required after storms struck the 1979 Fastnet race.Broadsword took part in the...

 and Commander of the 2nd Frigate Squadron in 1985, Director of Naval Operations and Trade at the Ministry of Defence

Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)

The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

 in 1986 and Director of Navy Staff Duties in 1987. His last appointments were as Flag Officer, Gibraltar in 1990 and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet

Commander-in-Chief Fleet

Commander-in-Chief Fleet is the admiral responsible for the operation, resourcing and training of the ships, submarines and aircraft, and personnel, of the British Royal Navy...

 in 1992 before retiring in 1995.

In retirement he worked for International Computers Limited.

Family

In 1967 he married Marcia Leask; they had three sons. Following the dissolution of his first marriage, he married Caroline Kerr (nee Daly) in 1981; they had one daughter.