Arthur Bedford Vice - Admiral Arthur Edward Frederick Bedford CB CSI ( 1881 – 5 December 1949 ) was a Royal Navy officer . He served in HMS " Kent " at the Battle of the Falkland Islands of 1914 and rose to command the Royal Indian Navy from 1934 to 1937 , when he retired . A year later he rejoined the colours and served until the end of the Second World War . Early life . The son of Admiral Sir Frederick Bedford GCB GCMG ( 1838 – 1913 ) , by his marriage to Ethel Turner , daughter of E . R . Turner of Ipswich , Bedford was educated at Dartmouth on the cadet ship HMS " Britannia " ( the precursor of the Britannia Royal Naval College ) and joined the Royal Navy as a Midshipman in 1895 . His father had previously commanded HMS " Britannia " from 1886 to 1889 . Bedford came of a long naval tradition . His grandfather , Vice - Admiral Edward James Bedford ( 1810 – 1887 ) , had also been a Royal Navy officer , and was himself the son of Lieutenant Frederick Bedford RN ( born 1779 ) , who lost a leg in a naval action near the Île d ' Yeu in 1801 . His great - grandmother , Mary Spearing , wife of Frederick Bedford , was the daughter of Lieutenant George Spearing RN ( 1728 – 1825 ) , who when he died in his 97th year was Senior Lieutenant of the Royal Navy . His brother Denham Maurice Turner Bedford ( 1886 – 1974 ) followed him into HMS " Britannia " and the Royal Navy , rising to the rank of Rear Admiral . Career . Bedford had reached the rank of Commander by the beginning of the Great War of 1914 – 18 and was Commander ( second - in - command ) of the Monmouth class cruiser " Kent " at the Battle of the Falkland Islands of 8 December 1914 , during which " Kent " sank the Königsberg class cruiser " Nürnberg " . In 1918 he joined the staff of the Dover Patrol . In early 1919 , he was in command of the scout cruiser HMS " Forward " when she rescued members of the Tolstoy family from the evacuation of Odessa , about to be captured by the Bolsheviks . For two years he was naval assistant to the Second Sea Lord , then in 1926 was appointed Captain of the Mediterranean Fleet . In 1928 he took command of the Royal Navy depot at Devonport , after which he was in command of the battlecruiser HMS " Tiger " . In 1931 he was promoted Rear Admiral and appointed aide - de - camp to King George V . From 1932 to 1934 he was Chief of Staff to Vice Admiral Sir William Fisher in the Mediterranean , then from 1934 to 1937 was Flag Officer commanding the Royal Indian Navy . Promoted Vice Admiral in 1936 , he retired in November 1937 , but rejoined the Navy before the outbreak of the Second World War and served again from 1938 to 1945 . He returned to the Retired List in May , 1945 . While commanding the Royal Indian Navy , Bedford was also Naval Adviser to the Commander - in - Chief in India and Defence Member of the Viceroy ' s Executive Council . Honours . Bedford was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1934 and of the Order of the Star of India in 1937 . Private life . In 1914 , Bedford married Gladys Mort , the daughter of William Edye Mort of Sydney , Australia , and they had one son , Frederick , who as a Lieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm was killed on active service over Malta on 21 February 1942 , at the age of twenty - two . Bedford ' s father had been Governor of Western Australia from 1903 to 1909 . In retirement , Bedford lived at Easthampnett , near Chichester , Sussex , and was a member of the United Service Club in Pall Mall and the MCC . He died in Malta on 5 December 1949 .