Grantham, Guy, 1900-1992

British naval officer and colonial administrator. Educated at Rugby School, Grantham joined the Royal Navy in 1918. During the Second World War, he was cruiser commander involved in the evacuation of Greece. He then served as a liaison officer in the Western Desert theatre. Thereafter, he held command of the cruiser HMS Naiad, which was sunk by torpedo (1942), and the HMS Cleopatra, which took part in the second Battle of Birte and the defeat of the Italian Fleet. For the invasion of Sicily, Grantham was in command of the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable. In 1944, he was appointed Director of Plans for the Admiralty. After the war, he served as Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet (1946-1948), and received further promotions in the Mediterranean, including Commander-in-Chief (1954) and NATO Commander Allied Forces Mediterranean (1954). Following his post as Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth and Allied Commander-in-Chief, Channel and Southern North Sea, he retired in 1959. Grantham was named First and Principal Naval Aide-de-camp to the Queen (1958-1959). He served as Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Malta from 1959 to 1962, during which time the Labour Prime Minister Dom Mintoff resigned, thus requiring Grantham to head the political government until the election of Borg Olivier's Nationalist Party in 1962. He married Beryl Mackintosh-Walker in 1934. He died in Syston Park, Lincolnshire, on September 8, 1992.