Supply Officer (Royal Navy) - Admirals and Head of Branch - and A Purser Pusser

and A Purser Pusser

Only two Supply Officers have ever been promoted to the rank of 'full' Admiral. Retiring as Chief of Fleet Support in 1977, Admiral Sir Peter White GBE (born 1919) was promoted on 28 June 1976, becoming the first of the branch to be appointed to the Admiralty Board. He had a most appropriate surname for the first four-star pusser, given the colour of the distinction cloth worn historically by his branch. Admiral Sir Brian Brown KCB, CBE was promoted to that rank on 26 August 1989. Happily, there has been at least one serving Supply Officer with the surname Purser - Benjamin Purser was promoted Lieutenant-Commander in July 1973. While there have also certainly been Supply Officers with the surname of Cook, perhaps the surnames Beauclerk, Bezant, Cater, Clark(e)/Clerk(e), Pay, Purves/Purvis, Scriven(er), Steward and Storer have been those of supply officers, too, over the centuries.

Twelve Supply Officers rose to the rank of substantive Vice-Admiral (see list of admirals below), of whom two were further promoted to Admiral; two others were promoted to Acting/Vice-Admiral in the late 1940s. In recent decades, among the officers of Flag rank in the Royal Navy, at any one time one, two or three Supply Officers have been Rear-Admirals. One of these two-star officers is appointed Chief Naval Supply and Secretariat Officer (CNSSO) - now CNLO - as head of branch; however, there was no admiral in the Logistics Branch from 2008–2010 and the senior officer branch was a Commodore. Rear-Admiral David Steel, a barrister, was promoted to two-star rank on 20 April 2010 and became Naval Secretary and Chief Naval Logistics Officer (CNLO). A Commander of the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is head of the RNR Logistics Branch.