Arthur Bedford

Vice-Admiral Arthur Edward Frederick Bedford, CB, CSI (2 August 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 (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.