Bernard Rawlings (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral Sir Henry Bernard Hughes Rawlings, (21 May 1889 – 30 September 1962) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Flag Officer, Eastern Mediterranean during the Second World War.

Naval career
Rawlings was born in St Erth, Cornwall, England, on 21 May 1889. Following education at Stubbington House School, Rawlings joined the Royal Navy in 1904 and served in the First World War. After the war he worked for the Foreign Office and undertook Military Missions in Poland. He then commanded the destroyer HMS Active (H14) and then the cruisers HMS Curacoa (D41) and HMS Delhi (D47) before becoming Naval Attaché in Tokyo in 1936.

Rawlings served in the Second World War, initially commanding the battleship HMS Valiant (1914), then commanding the 1st Battle Squadron from 1940 with the acting rank of Rear-Admiral before being promoted to the rank in January 1942. He was appointed in command of the 7th Cruiser Squadron in May, and became Assistant Chief of Naval Staff in April 1942. He was appointed Flag Officer, West Africa in March 1943 with the acting rank of Vice-Admiral before being promoted to the rank in November, and in December became Flag Officer, Eastern Mediterranean. He went on to be second-in-command of the British Pacific Fleet with his flag in HMS King George V (41). He commanded British Task Force 57 in the Pacific from 1944 through the Battle of Okinawa in the spring of 1945, and retired in 1946.

Rawlings died in Bodmin, Cornwall, England, on 30 September 1962.