Ships
- HMS Nigeria (60) Captain from 28 June 1942 · Relieved on 1 May 1944
Stuart Henry Paton commanded Nigeria from 28 June 1942. Uboat.net keeps him until 24 June 1944. The Navy List compilation ends the command on 1 May 1944. The command line uses 1 May. He had already been in her for Pedestal, for the Charleston repair, and for the passage out to the Eastern Fleet.
Uboat.net says his birth details are unknown and gives no death. Unithistories.com says he was born on 9 July 1900 at Croydon, and that he died on 14 July 1987 at Maybury Hill, Woking, Surrey. His parents were William Henry Paton and Winifred Powell, of Norwood, and of Sunfield, Shrewsbury. He married Dorothy Morgan in 1925. She died in 1984. She was the daughter of G. H. Morgan, of Ardwyn, Shrewsbury. They had two sons and two daughters.
He was educated at Hillside, Godalming, and at the Royal Naval Colleges Osborne and Dartmouth. Uboat.net lists him as midshipman from 15 July 1916, acting sub-lieutenant from 15 May 1918, sub-lieutenant from 15 January 1919, lieutenant from 15 February 1920, lieutenant-commander from 15 February 1928, commander from 31 December 1932, and captain from 31 December 1940. Both pages date his retirement 7 January 1950. Unithistories has him a midshipman in Marlborough in the Grand Fleet from the day of that first rank, then in the destroyer Orcadia in 1918. He qualified in torpedo, served as torpedo officer of Royal Sovereign and of Rodney, and was in the Plans Division. From 24 March 1936 he was executive officer of Achilles. From 12 April 1939 he was captain of Vernon. From 1 June 1941 he was on the Joint Intelligence Staff. In 1942 he commanded Curacoa on east-coast convoys, until 13 June 1942 on the Navy List page and until 13 June 1942 on uboat.net as well, that command having started on 20 February 1942.
He joined Nigeria on 28 June 1942, in time for the distant cover of PQ 17, and he was the captain named on the Pedestal events. Uboat.net's ship event says that on 12 August 1942, escorting the Malta convoy, she was torpedoed once by the Italian submarine Axum in 37°26'N, 10°22'E, made Gibraltar with three destroyers, and was sent to the United States for repairs. Mason's chronology dates the same hit on the 13th and does not give the position. He took her to Charleston in October 1942 and brought her home in 1943. The Eastern Fleet diary for March and April 1944, the joining at Ceylon on 27 March and Operation Cockpit on 16 April, falls inside both command lists. Operation Transom, from 6 May, falls inside the uboat.net list and after the Navy List end.
His mention in despatches is 10 November 1942 on uboat.net, with no operation named. Unithistories dates a mention 16 March 1943 and ties it to Pedestal. The CBE is 11 December 1945, for the wind-up in Europe, with an investiture on 23 July 1946. The KCVO is 8 July 1965, the birthday list, for King George's Fund for Sailors.
Unithistories has no appointment listed for June 1944, then Deputy Director of Plans from 11 August 1944. He commanded Newcastle in the Mediterranean from 7 November 1947, and from 8 July 1949 until 7 January 1950 he was also naval aide-de-camp to King George VI.
He retired on 7 January 1950. From 1950 to 1965 he was General Secretary of King George's Fund for Sailors, which is the appointment named against the 1965 KCVO. He died on 14 July 1987.