Admiral Sir William O’Brien.Anthony Manduca writes:
Admiral Sir William O’Brien, KCB, DSC, whose mother, Ines Parnis, was Maltese, died on February 19, aged 99. Britain’s The Daily Telegraph referred to him as “one of the most charismatic and best-loved admirals of his age”.
The son of a British Army major, O’Brien was brought up by his mother, the daughter of a Maltese judge, Alfred Parnis, after she was widowed in 1918.
Admiral O’Brien’s funeral was held at the Catholic Church of St Edward in Shaftsbury on March 4. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal and the Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra were all represented at the funeral. A number of Admiral O’Brien’s Parnis cousins from Malta also attended the funeral.
The eulogy at the funeral Mass was given by Michael Moore, who was Flag Lieutenant to Admiral O’Brien when the latter was Commander of the Royal Navy’s Far East Fleet in the late 1960s. Moore described him as “a wonderful boss” and “the most honest person I have ever met” who stood up for his officers and men.
O’Brien had a long and distinguished career in the Royal Navy and saw action in the Second World War. In 1941 he became first lieutenant of the destroyer HMS Offa on escort duty with convoys to Russia. He was awarded the DSC for gallantry while escorting a convoy to North Russia in the face of persistent enemy attacks.
O’Brien spent much of 1943 in command of the destroyer HMS Cottesmore in the North Sea and English Channel and in December 1944 was sent to the East Indies in connection with the Malayan campaign.
After the war O’Brien joined the Petty Officer Leadership School in 1946 where one of his fellow officers was Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, with whom he established a lasting friendship. The O’Briens were in fact invited to the Royal wedding in 1947 and saw much of the Royal couple when they lived in Malta, while O’Brien commanded the frigate HMS Venus.
O’Brien continued to rise up the ladder of the Royal Navy: he was second-in-command of the cruiser HMS Ceylon in 1953, was made responsible for officers’ career planning from 1953 to 1955, appointed chief staff officer to the Flag Officer, Flotillas, in the Mediterranean during the 1956 Suez crisis, and Captain of the destroyer HMS Cheviot in the Far East in 1958-60. He was later appointed deputy director of joint planning from 1960 to 1961 and he was commander of the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes from 1961 to 1963.
He was promoted to rear-admiral in 1964 and became Naval Secretary, where he dealt with officers’ promotions and awards. In 1966 he became Flag Officer Aircraft Carriers and his final appointment was Commander-in-Chief of the Western Fleet based at Northwood, Middlesex. He retired from the Royal Navy in September 1971.
O’Brien married Rita Hebblethwaite née Micallef, who was also Maltese, in 1943, and she died on October 9, 2012 aged 98. He is survived by a son, daughter and stepdaughter.