Robert Raikes

Admiral Sir Robert Henry Taunton Raikes KCB CVO DSO (23 August 1885 – 24 May 1953) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic Station.

Raikes was born in Chislehurst, Kent, the fifth son of Robert Taunton Raikes, and his wife, Rosa Margaret Cripps. He was educated at Radley College and aboard HMS Britannia in September 1900.

Raikes joined the Royal Navy in 1900. He served in World War I, earning the DSO in 1916, and went on to be Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth before becoming Director of the Royal Navy Staff College at Greenwich in 1932. He was made Chief of Staff of the Mediterranean Fleet in 1934 and Admiral in charge on a temporary basis at Alexandria in Egypt during the Abyssinian war in 1936 before becoming Rear Admiral Submarines in 1936. He served inWorld War II initially as Vice Admiral commanding the Reserve Fleet destroyers on the Northern Patrol before becoming Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic Station in 1940. He went on to be Flag Officer, Aberdeen from 1942 to 1944.

He lived at Mantyley Chase in Newent in Gloucestershire.

He married Ida Guinevere Evans. His son, Iwan Raikes, also served in the Royal Navy and became Flag Officer, Submarines. His nephew, Lieutenant-Commander Dick Raikes DSO, also served in the Royal Navy and launched Operation Frankton, the first SBS personnel of the Royal Marines Commandos on their raid using the klepper canoe against German shipping in the Gironde estuary in 1942. The story was told in the classic 1955 film The Cockleshell Heroes starring Trevor Howard.