Admiral Richard Greville Arthur Wellington Stapleton-Cotton (7 November 1873 – 5 January 1953) was a British officer of the Royal Navy.
Early life and family
Richard Greville Arthur Wellington Stapleton-Cotton was born at Wellington Barracks, London, on 7 November 1873, the second son of Colonel the Honourable Richard Southwell George Stapleton-Cotton (1849–1925), of Plas Llwynon, Anglesey, and his wife, the Honourable Jane Charlotte Methuen, daughter of Frederick Henry Paul Methuen, second Baron Methuen.Crisp, Visitation of England and Wales, vol. 18, p. 23Who Was Who, vol. 5, 1961, p. 1038 for date of death. His father was the younger son of the second Viscount Combermere and had been the Inspector-General of Police in Guiana from 1889 to 1891, was an officer in the Wiltshire Regiment, having served in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and in Bechuanaland in 1885, and served as a Justice of the Peace for Shropshire and Cheshire.Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 1920, pt. 1, p. 195
In 1910, he married Olive Harriet Cotton-Jodrell,England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, General Register Office, Marriage Records, Q3 1910, vol. 8a, p. 731 a daughter of Sir Edward Thomas Davenant Cotton-Jodrell, of Reaseheath and Yeardsley, Cheshire, Member of Parliament for Wirral, and his wife Mary Rennell Coleridge.Walford's County Families of the United Kingdom, 1913, p. 257; Fox-Davies, Armorial Families, 1929, p. 441
Stapleton-Cotton and his dog Tinker are the only two males ever to be accepted as fully paid-up members of the Women's Institute: he played a major part in setting up the first WI meeting in the UK, held in Anglesey in 1915.
Ancestry
Naval career
Stapleton-Cotton entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1887. He was promoted to midshipman two years later and then became a Sub-Lieutenant in 1893, lieutenant two years later, commander in 1905 and captain in 1913. He was the Commander atADM 196/89/155 the Royal Naval College at Osborne from 1906 to 1910. Promoted to rear-admiral in 1923Navy List, July 1924, p. 75 and then to vice-admiral in 1928, he was placed on the retired list by 1931.Navy List, July 1931, 552 In 1932, he was promoted to the rank of admiral in the retired list.The London Gazette, 21 October 1932, issue 33875, p. 6626
In 1905, he was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO). He was also appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB).The London Gazette, 21 October 1932, issue 33875, p. 6626 From 1928 to 1932, Stapleton-Cotton served as Gentleman Usher of the Scarlet Rod, and then as Registrar and Secretary of the Order of the Bath from 1932 to 1948; in the latter capacity, he attended the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937 and took part in the procession into the Abbey.Who Was Who, vol. 5, 1961, p. 1038; Supplement to the London Gazette, 10 November 1937, no. 34453, p. 7047
Later life
Admiral Stapleton-Cotton died on 5 January 1953, aged 79, in Merionethshire. He left an estate worth over £24,000.England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes, General Register Office, Death Records, Q1 1953, vol. 8c, p. 1; National Probate Calendar, 1953
References Citations
Bibliography G.E. Cokayne (1895), The Complete Peerage, 1st edition, volume 5. F.A. Crisp (1914), Visitation of England and Wales, volume 18. A.C. Fox-Davies (1929), Armorial Families, seventh edition.