Nigel Henderson

Admiral Sir Nigel Stuart Henderson GBE KCB DL (1 August 1909 – 1993) was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Chairman of the NATO Military Committee.

Naval career
Henderson joined the Royal Navy in 1927. He served in World War II as a gunnery officer. After the war he became Naval Attaché in Rome and then, from 1951, commanded the patrol vessel HMS Protector.

He was appointed Commanding Officer at the Royal Naval Air Station at Bramcote in 1952 and was Captain of the cruiser HMS Kenya from 1955. He became Vice Naval Deputy and then Naval Deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe in 1957 and Director General of Training at the Admiralty in 1960. In 1962 he was made Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth. He was made Head of the British Defence Staff in Washington D. C. and British Member of Standing Group and UK Military Representative to NATO in 1965 and then Chairman of the NATO Military Committee in 1968. He retired in 1971.

Writing in 1974 he expressed concern over a general lack of awareness about "Western Europe and indeed of all NATO countries being dependent very largely on Middle East oil".

In retirement he spearheaded the effort to restore the Scottish birthplace of John Paul Jones at Arbigland back to its original 1747 condition. He was also a Deputy Lieutenant of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and a Patron of the Ten Tors Challenge held each year on Dartmoor.

Family
He was married to Catherine.