Career
Johns joined the Royal Navy in 1973 following his education at Newquay grammar school in Cornwall and then Imperial College, London, where he studied physics. On 1 September 1975, he was promoted to Lieutenant, with seniority from 1 January 1975. After his initial postings, Johns trained as a helicopter pilot and then served as a Westland Sea King pilot with 824 Naval Air Squadron aboard HMS Ark Royal. He became a flying instructor in 1979. In 1981, he was given his first command on board HMS Yarnton in Hong Kong and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander on 16 October 1982. After holding other naval posts, he was promoted to Commander on 30 June 1988 and then commanded the frigates HMS Juno and HMS Ariadne between 1988 and 1990.
Johns attained the rank of Captain on 31 December 1994. Between various appointments at the Ministry of Defence, he held the command of the frigate HMS Campbeltown from 1995 to 1996.
Johns was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2001 New Year Honours. Later that year, he took command of the amphibious assault ship HMS Ocean. It was deployed to Iraq in spring 2003. Following this tour, Johns received a Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service, gazetted on 31 October 2003. He relinquished command of the Ocean on his promotion to Rear Admiral in May 2003.
Johns became Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff in May 2003. In October 2005, he was promoted to Vice Admiral and appointed Second Sea Lord and Commander in Chief of Naval Home Command. The 2008 New Year Honours saw him appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB). He was succeeded as Second Sea Lord by Vice-Admiral Alan Massey in a ceremony on board HMS Victory on 15 July 2008.
On 9 June 2009, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced that Johns would succeed Sir Robert Fulton as Governor of Gibraltar later that year. Johns arrived at Gibraltar on board HMS Lancaster and was sworn into the office of Governor of Gibraltar on Monday 26 October 2009.
On 2 February 2011, Johns was appointed a Knight of the Order of St. John, an honour in the personal gift of Her Majesty The Queen.
Read more about this topic: Adrian Johns
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—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)
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—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“John Brown’s career for the last six weeks of his life was meteor-like, flashing through the darkness in which we live. I know of nothing so miraculous in our history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)