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Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) Officers
1939-1945

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O
Oakley,
Malcolm Gray
"Drip"
M.G. Oakley
Son of ... Oakley, and ... Gray.
(12?).1919
West Derby district, Lancashire
-
T/A/S.Lt. (A)
?
T/S.Lt. (A)
03.03.1944 (reld < 04.1946)
17.04.1944
-
(10.1944)
observer, 825 Squadron FAA [initially at HMS Vindex (escort carrier)]
(07.1945)


no appointment listed
O'Bryen,
William Stanislaus
W.S. O'Bryen
Son of John Gibson Patrick and Ivy Charlotte O'Bryen, of Fynnland, Natal, South Africa. 
1916
Natal, South Africa
-
26.11.1942

[age 26]
[Yeovilton Churchyard, RNAS extension]
T/S.Lt. (A)
?
Education: Glenwood High School, Durban, South Africa (1929-1930)
?
-
26.11.1942
HMS Heron (RN Air Station, Yeovilton) (died in service)
O'Connor,
Austin Henry
A.H. O'Connor
Married; one son.
04.09.1910
London
-
10.12.1986

Chichester, West Sussex
Prob. T/S.Lt.
02.02.1940
T/Lt.
04.09.1940 (reld < 04.1946)
T/A/Lt.Cdr. ?
1945?
(04.1940)
 
 
training, HMS King Alfred (RNVR officers' training establishments, Hove & Lancing, Sussex)
26.07.1940
-
(02.)1941
HMS Watchful (RN base, Yarmouth) (for HM ML 107 (motor launch))
1941?


served at Larne (Northern Ireland) [HMS Racer?]
07.09.1941
-
(08.1942)
HMS Orlando (RN base, Greenock)
after developing serious eye problems at sea, he spent the period from late 1942 to end of war attached to US 8th Air Force lecturing US bomber crews on US bases in East Anglia on recognition of enemy/friendly shipping: 
16.07.1943
-
(07.1945)
Operations Division, Admiralty [HMS President] (for duty outside Admiralty)
Ohlenschlager,
Valentine [Jones]
"Val" / "O"
V. Ohlenschlager
Son of .. Ohlenschlager, and ... Percy.
14.12.1921
Midhurst district, Hampshire / Sussex
-
24.04.1975
Helston, Truro district, Cornwall
(killed (shot five times) by a disaffected employee)
T/A/S.Lt.
?
T/S.Lt.
05.12.1942
T/Lt.
05.12.1944 (reld 1946?)

Distinguished Service Cross

DSC
13.07.1943
attack shipping enemy coast Nore 13.05.43
10.1942
-
(02.)1943
First Lieutenant, HM MTB 72 (motor torpedo boat) [HMS Beehive (Coastal Forces base, Felixstowe)]
19.04.1943
-
(10.1943)
Commanding Officer, HM MTB 232 (motor torpedo boat) [HMS Beehive (Coastal Forces base, Felixstowe)]
17.01.1944
-
(10.1944)
HMS Ursa (destroyer)
05.05.1945
-
(07.1945)
Commanding Officer, HM ML 834 (motor launch)
(04.1946)


HMS Maid Marion (armed yacht) *
Owned the Angel Hotel in Helston, Cornwall.
* indexed, but not listed as such
Oldfield,
Neville Gordon
N.G. Oldfield
Son of ... Oldfield, and ... Williams.
05.12.1919
Portsmouth district, Hampshire
-
01.1990
Winchester district, Hampshire
T/S.Lt.
21.05.1942
T/Lt.
1945? (reld < 04.1946)
(06.1944)


Commanding Officer, HM MTB 249 (motor torpedo boat)
(10.1944)
 
 
no appointment listed
28.05.1945
-
(07.1945)
Commanding Officer, HM MTB 380 (motor torpedo boat)
Olivier,
Gerard Dacres
"Dickie"
G.D. Olivier
Son of late Rev. G.K. Olivier and Agnes Louise Crookenden.
Brother of Lt. (A) Laurence Kerr Olivier, RNVR.
(12?).1904
Dorking district, Surrey
-
?
Skpr.
?
T/Lt.
24.04.1941 (reld < 04.1946)

Distinguished Service Medal

DSM
16.08.1940
Dunkirk [investiture 04.11.41]
(06.1940)


Motor Yacht Marsayru (Dinkirk)
(1943)


Commanding Officer, HM ML ...
15.11.1943
-
(10.1944)
Commanding Officer, HM MTB 713 (motor torpedo boat)
14.03.1945
-
(07.1945)
Plans Division, Admiralty [HMS President]
Olivier,
Laurence Kerr;
Baron Olivier of Brighton (created 1970; Life Peer) 
L.K. Olivier
Son of late Rev. G.K. Olivier and Agnes Louise Crookenden.
Brother of Lt. Gerald Dacres Olivier, RNVR.
Married 1st (1930) Jill Esmond (marriage dissolved, 1940); one son.
Married 2nd (1940) Vivien Leigh (marriage dissolved, 1961; she died 1967).
Married 3rd (1961) Joan Plowright, CBE; one son, two daughters.
22.05.1907
Dorking, Surrey
-
11.07.1989
Steyning, West Sussex
[buried at Westminster Abbey, London]
T/S.Lt. (A)
?
T/Lt. (A)
14.07.1941 (resigned 12.05.1944)

Order of Merit

OM
1981
?
Knight Bachelor Kt
1947
?
Education: St Edward's School, Oxford. MA Hon. Tufts, Mass, 1946; Hon. DLitt: Oxon, 1957; Manchester, 1968; Sussex, 1978; Hon. LLD Edinburgh 1964; Hon. DLitt London, 1968; Fellow, BAFTA, 1976.
1941
-
12.05.1944
in two to three years' service Olivier became a lieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm; he stepped unhurt out of a number of forced or crash landings, gave ground and gunnery instruction, but never saw combat
Actor; Director, 1962-73, Associate Director, 1973-74, National Theatre; Member, South Bank Theatre Board, since 1967 (South Bank Theatre and Opera House Board, 1962-67; Olivier Theatre opened, 1976, in presence of the Queen).
Published: Confessions of an actor (1984)
O'Mahoney,
Bernard Michael [E]
B.M. O'Mahoney
27.09.1919
-
10.1990
Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Lt.
27.03.1942 (reld 1945/46)
?


Commanding Officer, MGB ...
(1945)


HMS Flycatcher
Orr,
Stanley Gordon
"Stan"
S.G. Orr
Married (1940) Myra Page (died 1999); two sons.

Telegraph obituary
28.09.1916
West London
-
11.08.2003
South East Hampshire
Prob. S.Lt. (A)
28.02.1939
S.Lt. (A)
1940, seniority 28.02.1939
Lt. (A)
28.08.1941
A/Lt.Cdr. (A)
1944?
A/Lt. RN
1945?, seniority 28.08.1940
A/Lt.Cdr. RN
< 07.1945
Lt.
?, seniority 28.08.1940
Lt.Cdr.
28.08.1948
Cdr.
30.06.1954 (retd 1966)

Distinguished Service Cross

DSC
08.04.1941
many attacks on enemy aircraft
Distinguished Service Cross DSC
01.07.1941
HM's birthday 41
Distinguished Service Cross DSC
30.05.1944
attack on Tirpitz 03.04.44
Air Force Cross AFC
01.01.1948
New Year 48
Mention in Despatches MID
18.07.1944
Operation Potluck (air operations Norway 12-16.05.44)
Education: Paxton Park boarding school; Regent Street Polytechnic
Engineering apprentice.
?
-
1940
HMS Glorious (aircraft carrier)
22.04.1940
-
(02.)1941
pilot, 806 Squadron FAA [HMS Illustrious]
03.11.1941
-
(12.1941)
pilot, 759 Squadron FAA [HMS Heron]
01.10.1942
-
03.1943
Commanding Officer, 896 Squadron FAA [HMS Asbury (accommodation, Asbury Park, New Jersey, USA), later HMS Victorious (aircraft carrier) (Pacific Fleet) [stricken with poliomyelitis]
1943
-
08.1943?
HMS Queen Elizabeth (battleship)
10.08.1943
-
06.1944
Commanding Officer, 804 Squadron FAA [HMS Emperor]
1944
-
?
Chief Flying Instructor
1945


transferred to RN
(07.1945)
-
(04.1946)
no appointment listed
10.02.1947
-
(07.1948)
RN Air Section, Boscombe Down [HMS Daedalus (RN Air Station, Lee-on-Solent)]
21.03.1949
-
(05.)1949
HMS Triumph (aircraft carrier)
14.11.1949
-
(05.1950)
HMS Implacable (aircraft carrier)
04.03.1953
-
(05.1953)
HMS Peregrine (RN Air Station, Ford, Sussex) (for miscellaneous services)
24.08.1953
-
(01.1956)
HMS President (for duty at Ministry of Supply)
29.10.1958
-
(07.1961) HMS President (for duty at Ministry of Aviation)
12.11.1962
-
(02.1964)
Officer-in-Charge, Flight Safety Centre [HMS Daedalus (HQ Flag Officer Air (Home), Lee-on-Solent)]
?
-
1966
in command of the Interservice Hovercraft Trials Unit
AFRAeS
Osborn,
John Arthur
J.A. Osborn
Son of Iver Dennis Osborn and Dora Sweetland Osborn, of Bristol.

biography at Clifton Rugby Football Club website
1918 ?
-
29.05.1941
(KIA) [age 23]
[Plymouth Naval Memorial, panel 61, column 3]

Prob. S.Lt.
27.03.1939
S.Lt.
?, seniority 27.03.1939
27.03.1939


commissioned, RNVR (Severn Division)
01.09.1939
-
29.05.1941
HMS Orion (cruiser) (killed in action during bombing of the ship)
O'Sullivan,
John Philip Francis
J.P.F. O'Sullivan
?
-

T/S.Lt.
01.03.1944 (reld > 04.1946)
10.07.1944
-
?
HMS Pennywort (corvette)
(07.1945)


no appointment listed
16.10.1945
-
(04.1946)
HMS Start Bay (frigate)
Outhwaite,
Cedric Robert Leonard
C.R.L. Outhwaite
Married Helen Kennedy, daughter of Capt. Arthur Herbert Kennedy; at least one son (Capt. Brian Robert Outhwaite, RN).
1898
Melbourne, Australia
-
02.10.1945
[South London Crematorium, Mitcham, panel 27]
T/S.Lt.
15.06.1917
T/Lt.
10.09.1940
T/A/Lt.Cdr.
> 02.1941, < 12.1941
T/A/Cdr.
> 10.1944, < 07.1945

Distinguished Service Cross

DSC
23.07.1918
Zeebrugge *
Mention in Despatches MID
WW I ?
?
* In command of a Coastal Motor Boat. Under considerable gunfire from shore defences, torpedoed an enemy destroyer proceeding eastward from Zeebrugge harbour.
(1918)


Commanding Officer of a Coastal Motor Boat (Zeebrugge)
23.08.1940
-
(08.1942)
HMS Hornet (Coastal Forces base, Gosport) (for Motor Torpedo Boats)
07.09.1943
-
02.10.1945
Coastal Forces Materiel Department, Admiralty [HMS President] *
* Was going to be promoted and go to command a coastal forces depot ship in Gibraltar in 1943, but he was found to have high blood pressure for which there was no cure in those days.
Owen,
Ifor Gwynn
I.G. Owen
14.05.1915
-
10.1994
De Meirionnydd, Gwynedd
T/S.Lt.
?
T/Lt.
10.1942, seniority 10.04.1942
28.07.1941
-
(02.1943)
HMS Express (destroyer)
27.04.1943
-
(06.1944)
HMS Hotspur (destroyer)
?
-
(07.1945)
HMS Osprey (anti-submarine establishment, Dunoon) *
* indexed, but not listed as such
Oxby,
Dennis Herbert
D.H. Oxby
Son of Frederick William and Dorothy Oxby.
1925 ?
-
29.08.1944
[age 19]
[Faughanvale (St Canice) Church of Ireland Churchyard, Eglinton, Londonderry, NW Extension]
T/A/S.Lt. (A)
?
?
-
29.08.1944
HMS Peewit (RN Air Station, East Haven, Angus)
[flying a Fairey Barracuda II [DP872] it took off from Maydown for East Haven, spun into bog five miles from airfield - Blackhead Moss near Enagh Lough, Waterside, Londonderry; S/Lt DH Oxby RN, S/Lt FR Dobbie RN and LA DAJ Mew were all killed]


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