Vice Admiral

Vice Admiral (Royal Navy)

Vice admiral is a flag officer rank of the British Royal Navy. It equates to the NATO rank code OF-8 and is immediately superior to rear admiral and is subordinate to the full admiral rank.The Royal Navy has had vice admirals since at least the 16th century...

 Sir Neville Purvis 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...

 (born 8 May 1936) 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 ended his career as Chief of Fleet Support

Fourth Sea Lord

The Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Supplies was formerly one of the Naval Lords and members of the Board of Admiralty which controlled the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom.-History:...

.

Naval career

Educated at Charterhouse School

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...

, Selwyn College, Cambridge

Selwyn College, Cambridge

Selwyn College is a constituent college in the University of Cambridge in England, United Kingdom.The college was founded by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of the Rt Reverend George Selwyn , who rowed on the Cambridge crew in the first Varsity Boat Race in 1829, and went on to become the...

 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...

, Purvis joined the 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...

 in 1953 and specialized as a submariner

Submariner

Submariner can mean:*A sailor who is a crewman of a submarine*Namor the Sub-Mariner, a comic-book character in the Marvel Comics Universe*Rolex Submariner, a make of diver's watch*Submariner an album by Experimental rock band The Dead Science...

. Promoted to Rear Admiral, he was appointed Director-General, Future Material Projects in 1987 and Director-General, Naval Manpower & Training in 1988 and then, having been promoted to Vice Admiral, he served as Chief of Fleet Support

Fourth Sea Lord

The Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Supplies was formerly one of the Naval Lords and members of the Board of Admiralty which controlled the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom.-History:...

 from 1991 until his retirement in 1994.

In retirement he became Director General of the British Standards Institution (BSI) and thereafter Chief Executive

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 of the British Safety Council

British Safety Council

The British Safety Council is a global health and safety charity. Founded in 1957, the charity helps businesses with their health, safety and environmental management; campaigns and influences; and is a champion of young workers' safety. Its vision is that no-one should be killed, injured or made...

 and, more recently, a Trustee of the Wellington Trust, a charity formed to preserve the sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 HMS Wellington

HMS Wellington

HMS Wellington is a Grimsby-class sloop, formerly of the Royal Navy. During the Second World War, she served as a convoy escort ship in the North Atlantic...

. He lives at Bramley

Bramley, Surrey

Bramley is a village and civil parish about three miles south of Guildford in the Borough of Waverley in Surrey, south east England. With a population of c.3,300 most of the parish lies in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There is evidence of iron age settlement in the area,...

 in Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

.