Vice Admiral Sir Edmund Walter Anstice, (5 May 1899 – 30 August 1979) was a senior Royal Navy officer and aviator who served as Fifth Sea Lord from 1951 to 1954. Early life and training The second son of Major John Christian Appold Anstice, he joined the Royal Navy in August 1914, and was trained at the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth before seeing service in the First World War. He was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant on 15 January 1918. In 1919 he was stationed at HMS President while attending a course at Cambridge University, receiving promotion to lieutenant on 15 February 1920. Naval career Naval aviator On attachment to the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force (RAF; all naval aviation being under the control of the RAF at that time), he attended No. 1 Flying Training School at Netheravon, Wiltshire, from June 1924 until January 1925, before being posted to No. 462 Flight, Fleet Air Arm, aboard the aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Fleet, receiving the RAF rank of flight lieutenant on 1 July 1927. On 1 September he became Flight Commander of No. 464 Flight, Fleet Air Arm, aboard the carrier . He was promoted to lieutenant commander on 15 February 1928 and, in October 1929, transferred to the battlecruiser . Anstice returned to Courageous in November 1930 to serve as Flight Commander of No. 463 Flight for the next two years. He was promoted to Navy commander on 31 December 1932, and to the RAF rank of squadron leader on 1 January 1933, and from 26 September was attached to the Directorate of Training at the Air Ministry. On 19 June 1936 he returned to Courageous once more, this time as Senior FAA Officer and Squadron Aviation Officer, receiving promotion to wing commander on 1 July. On 28 July 1937 he was appointed Executive Officer of the heavy cruiser in the Mediterranean Fleet, remaining there until receiving promotion to the rank of captain on 30 June 1939. Second World War Anstice spent the early part of the Second World War, from October 1939, serving at the Admiralty, and was appointed Deputy Director of the Naval Air Division in February 1941. He returned to sea duty in August 1942 serving briefly as Commanding Officer of the escort carrier , before taking command of until 19 January 1944. In March he returned to shore duty