Admiral Ronald Lynsdale 'Ronnie' Pereira, PVSM, AVSM (25 May 1923 – 14 October 1993) was a flag officer in the Indian Navy. He served as the ninth Chief of Naval Staff from 1979 to 1982. He is considered to be one of the architects of the modern Indian Navy. During World War II, he saw active service aboard various motor launches in Burma and Malaysia between 1943 and 1945 and thereafter, continued at sea with an amphibious task group based in Iraq, till 1946. After Independence in 1947 and completion of professional gunnery training at at Portsmouth, he served for several years as a gunnery specialist, both afloat and ashore. He has commanded and the Navy's flagship, . He served as deputy commandant of the National Defence Academy and as the director of combat policy & tactics at Naval HQ. In his 39-year illustrious naval career, Pereira held prestigious appointments of Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet (FOCEF), Flag Officer Commanding Southern Naval Command and the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Western Naval Command. An able sportsman, he represented the Indian Navy in hockey in 1946 and in golf in the 1960s. Early life and education Pereira was born on 25 May 1923 to lieutenant (later major) John Michael Pereira, a doctor in the Indian Medical Service and Charlotte Louise O'Keefe Lynsdale in Calcutta. He was the youngest of four children – two boys and two girls. His eldest brother Arthur was 14 years elder to him and his sisters Maisie and Inez were 12 and 6 years elder respectively. John Michael studied medicine in Dublin, Ireland, and joined the Indian Medical Department of the British Indian Army. He was attached to the Seistan Force and served in Iraq. Returning to India in 1919, he was commissioned as a lieutenant and subsequently attached to the 72nd Punjabis which was a part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. In 1920, he moved to the civil department and served in the Bihar and Orissa Province until his superannuation. He served as the civil surgeon (chief medical officer of a district), jail superintendent of the Military Camp Jail, Patna and Gaya Central Jail, before taking over as the superintendent of the Patna Medical College and Hospital. He was awarded the MBE in 1937 and the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal in 1938. Pereira attended the St. Joseph's School, Darjeeling, popularly known as North Point, and from 1932 to 1937. Later,