Elizabeth Hoyer-Millar

Dame (Evelyn Louisa) Elizabeth Hoyer-Millar DBE DL (17 December 1910 – 26 February 1984)[1] was a British naval officer who became Commandant of the Women's Royal Naval Service.

Career

Hoyer-Millar (of a Scottish family, related to the Barons Inchyra) served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) 1939–41,[2] then joined the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) in 1942. She was commissioned as a Second Officer (equivalent to Lieutenant) in 1943[3] and later was in charge of the first party of "Wrens" to land in Normandy.[4]

She was promoted to First Officer, then in 1945 to acting Chief Officer (equivalent to Commander).[5] She was Superintendent (Captain) of the Air branch and then the Training branch of the WRNS before becoming Commandant of the WRNS 1958–60. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1952 New Year Honours[6] and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1960 Queen's Birthday Honours.[7] She retired to Scotland and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Angus in 1971.[8]

In 1960 Hoyer-Millar was among six distinguished women at a Women of the Year Lunch who were asked "If you were not yourself, who would you like to be?" Hoyer-Millar said that she would like to have been Helen of Troy. "Lady Hamilton I rather obviously considered," she said, "but I think my career might have been less successful and happy had I had the interests and desires that brought her to fame."[9]

References

  1. ↑ Mosley, Charles, ed. Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 2003, vol.2, p.2042
  2. ↑ HOYER-MILLAR, Dame (Evelyn Louisa) Elizabeth, Who Was Who, A & C Black, 1920–2016 (online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014)
  3. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 36481. p. 1842. 21 April 1944.
  4. ↑ Ursula Stuart Mason, Britannia's Daughters, Pen and Sword, 2012, page 131
  5. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 37457. p. 818. 5 February 1946.
  6. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 39421. p. 6. 28 December 1951.
  7. ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 42051. p. 3977. 3 June 1960.
  8. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 45545. p. 13762. 16 December 1971.
  9. ↑ Who else would you be? Women of the Year name their choice, Yorkshire Post, 7 October 1960

External links

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