Admiral Sir Michael Maynard Denny, GCB, CBE, DSO (3 October 1896 – 7 April 1972) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Third Sea Lord from 1949 to 1953.
Educated at Queen Elizabeth's School, Wimborne Minster,[1] the Royal Naval College, Osborne and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Denny joined the Royal Navy in 1909.[2] He served in the First World War and, after the war, specialised in gunnery.[2] In 1932 he joined the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. He spent two years at sea as an executive officer before becoming assistant director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty in 1937.[2] He was appointed deputy director of Naval Ordnance in 1938.[2]
Denny served in the Second World War as Senior Naval Officer for the Åndalsnes landing and then as chief staff officer for the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.[2] In 1940 he was given command of the cruiser HMS Kenya.[2] He became chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet in 1942.[2] In 1943 he took command of the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, from which he conducted air strikes against Okinawa in Japan.[2]
After the war Denny became Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel and Director of Personal Services and then, from 1947, Flag Officer (Destroyers) for the Mediterranean Fleet.[2] In 1949 he became Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy and in 1954 he was made Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet and Commander-in-Chief, Eastern Atlantic.[2] He was appointed Chairman of the British Joint Services Mission to Washington, D.C., and UK Representative on the NATO Standing Group in 1956.[2] He retired in 1959.[2]
In retirement Denny became a Director of Cammell Laird.[1]
In 1923 Denny married Sara Annie Esme Welman.[1]
