Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt - Telegraph Hunt then enjoyed an unusually long period in command, first of the frigate Palliser (1962-64) and, on promotion to commander, of the recommissioned frigate Troubridge. He had enjoyed acting at Dartmouth, so it was appropriate that Troubridge was the model for the fictional "HMS Troutbridge" in the long-running radio comedy The Navy Lark, and also the location for some shooting of the fictional "USS Bedford" in the 1965 film drama The Bedford Incident. In 1969 Hunt commanded the carrier Ark Royal while she was in refit and then became her executive officer. During an exercise in the Mediterranean, Ark Royal collided with shadowing Soviet destroyer which had cut across her. Russian sailors were thrown overboard, two were reported lost and five were recovered by Royal Navy boats. An eighth refused to be picked up and swam back to his ship escorted by one of Ark Royal's boats. Damage to the port side of Ark Royal after her collision with a Soviet ship Hunt returned from sea invigorated, and it was his short appointment as assistant director of Defence Policy Staff, in a tri-Service environment, which marked him as a first-class staff officer who, as his superior officer at the time noted, could "obtain quick and effective results from the stranglehold of the MoD." Hunt impressed senior officers of the other Services with his charm and his understated yet gregarious approach, beneath which lay a steely determination. In 1974, as a student at the Royal College of Defence Staff, he displayed a perceptiveness and work ethic that marked him out as the outstanding naval student of his course - this despite the fact that he left early to take command of the landing ship Intrepid. As Director of Plans (1976-78), an appointment involving strategy for war and budgeting, Hunt was described as the cleverest director of his generation by Admiral Sir Julian Oswald. Hunt became Captain, Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in October 1978, and on promotion to rear-admiral he was Flag Officer, Second Flotilla (1980-81). He was Director-General Naval Manpower and Training from 1981 to 1983, and as a vice-admiral was Flag Officer, Scotland and Northern Ireland (1983-85). Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt In 1985 he was promoted to admiral and appointed Commander-in-Chief Fleet and Allied Commander-in-Chief Channel and Eastern Atlantic. He proved an inspiring figure. During one address to the staff course, Hunt strode, jacket off, on to the stage where he talked without a note but with hallmark clarity, wit and often self-deprecating asides . The audience of sceptical middle-ranking officers was won over. He was appointed KCB in 1985 and advanced to GCB on his retirement two years later. He then brought his enthusiasm to a range of causes, including Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, leading it in a £17 million capital development programme which established it as a successful tourist destination and museum. He was deputy managing director at Eurotunnel (1987-89); commissioner of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (1988-92); director general of the Chamber of Shipping (1991-97); chairman of the South-West Surrey District Health Authority (1990-95); and chairman of Nuffield Hospitals (1996-2001). Hunt was appointed to the ceremonial role of Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom (1994-97), then Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, and finally Lieutenant of the Admiralty, the personal representative of the Queen in her capacity as Lord High Admiral. Nicholas Hunt married, in 1966, Meriel Eve Givan, who survives him with their daughter and two sons, one of whom is Jeremy Hunt, MP, currently Secretary of State for Health. Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt, born November 7 1930, died October 25 2013