Charles Forbes (Royal Navy officer)

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Morton Forbes GCB, DSO (22 November 1880 – 28 August 1960) was a Royal Navy officer.

Naval career
Educated at Eastman's Royal Naval Academy, Forbes joined the Royal Navy in July 1894. After serving as a Midshipman in the Channel Fleet and Pacific, he returned to the UK to train as a gunnery specialist. He was promoted Lieutenant 15 January 1901.

During the early part of World War I he served in HMS Queen Elizabeth (1913). His service in her included the Dardanelles and Gallipoli campaigns. In October 1915 Forbes returned to the UK to take up an appointment as Flag Commander to Admiral Jellicoe, Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet. He saw action at the Battle of Jutland from Jellicoe's flagship HMS Iron Duke. In 1917 he was appointed Captain of HMS Galatea.

After the end of the war Forbes served as Naval Member of the Ordnance Committee from October 1919 to March 1921 and then as Deputy Director of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, from August 1921 to June 1923. He was appointed Director of Naval Ordnance at the Admiralty in 1925 and Rear Admiral commanding the Destroyer Flotillas in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1930. In February 1932 Forbes became Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy.

In April 1934 he returned to sea as Vice Admiral commanding 1st Battle Squadron and Second in Command to the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. Four years later came the high point of Forbes career when he became Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, an appointment he held from April 1938 to December 1940. He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in 1940 and made Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in 1941. He retired in 1943.

Charles Forbes died on 28 August 1960.