Roger Backhouse

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Roland Charles Backhouse was a Royal Navy officer. He served in the First World War as a cruiser commander and after the war became a battle squadron commander and later Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet. Becoming First Sea Lord in November 1938, his major contribution in that role was to abandon the official British policy of sending a major fleet to Singapore to deter Japanese aggression, realising the immediate threat was closer to home and that such a policy was no longer viable. He died from a brain tumour in July 1939 just before the outbreak of the Second World War.