Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Julian Robertson Oswald (11 August 1933 – 19 July 2011) was a senior Royal Navy officer. After training as a gunnery specialist, Oswald commanded a frigate and then a destroyer before achieving higher command in the navy. He served as First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff in the early 1990s. In that capacity he advised the British Government on the reduction in the size of the fleet under the Options for Change restructuring programme and on the deployment of Naval Support for the Gulf War in 1991: he also made the decision that members of the Women's Royal Naval Service should be allowed to serve in Royal Navy ships. Naval career Oswald was born to Captain George Hamilton Oswald, RN and his wife Margaret Elliott Oswald (née Robertson). The Oswalds were a landed gentry family of Cavens, Dumfries and Auchincruive (now named "Oswald Hall"), South Ayrshire, Scotland, descending from merchant George Oswald, Rector of the University of Glasgow from 1797 to 1799, Oswald was educated at Beaudesert Park School and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He joined the Royal Navy as a cadet on 1 May 1947. During his early career he served in the cruiser HMS Devonshire and was commissioned as a midshipman on 1 January 1952. He then served in the battleship HMS Vanguard and then the frigate HMS Verulam. Promoted to sub-lieutenant on 1 May 1953, he was posted to the aircraft carrier in February 1955. Promoted to lieutenant on 1 June 1955, he subsequently served in the cruiser HMS Newfoundland and then the minesweeper . After qualifying in gunnery Oswald joined the aircraft carrier in 1960. He was given command of the minesweeper in April 1962 and was promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 June 1963. After attending the Royal Navy Staff College in 1964, he was posted to the shore establishment HMS Excellent at Portsmouth as Air Weapons Officer in 1965. HMS Excellent maintains the gun carriage used for state funerals, and Oswald was the Funeral Gun Carriage Officer for the Funeral of Sir Winston Churchill on 30 January 1965. He was posted to the frigate HMS Naiad in September 1966 and promoted to commander on 31 December 1968 on his appointment to the Directorate of Naval Plans at the Ministry of Defence. Oswald was given command of the frigate HMS Bacchante in January 1971 and then