John Litchfield

Captain John Shirley Sandys Litchfield, OBE (27 August 1903 – 31 May 1993) was a British Royal Navy officer and politician who became Conservative Member of Parliament for Chelsea. He was noted for his connections with the Royal family. Education Litchfield was the son of a rear admiral in the Royal Navy (F.S. Litchfield-Speer), and went to the Royal Naval College, Osborne, where Naval officer cadets received an education akin to a public school subsidised by the Navy. He went on from there to the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, and later studied at the Imperial Defence College and on an exchange trip to the National War College in the United States. Royal connections At Dartmouth, Litchfield was asked to "keep a fraternal eye" on fellow cadet Prince Charles of Belgium, and later served with him on when it visited the far east with the Prince of Wales. In 1922, while at the wedding of Lord Louis Mountbatten, Litchfield accidentally trod on the foot of former Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, who uttered a response that was "unparliamentary and swift". That same year, it was Mountbatten who personally informed Litchfield of his father's death. Litchfield was appointed as "King's Midshipman" for Cowes Week of 1924, and nearly caused problems when his steamship came within inches of colliding with the Royal Yacht. He later recalled that he heard a loud cry of "Mind my paintwork, boy!" and looked round to see that King George V was glowering at him.