United States Navy Officer, Historian. Born in the Philippine Islands of a British naval officer father and an American Army officer's daughter, he was reared in England and Ireland, and came to the United States in 1931. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in English from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and a Master's Degree in Public Relations from Boston University. Commissioned into the United States Navy during World War II, he commanded two ships in the Atlantic and the Caribbean, of which his last command was "USS PC-1264", a "PC-461"-class submarine chaser that was specially designed as a high speed ship used to detect and destroy enemy submarines and commonly used for convoy escort duty. "PC-1264" was one of two subchasers manned by African-American sailors, supervised by white officers, in an experiment during World War II to show that African-Americans were equal to the task of sailing ships and handling technical duties, a belief that was not generally accepted in the wartime segregated Navy. The sailors on "PC-1264" not only showed that African-Americans could perform the duties, it also was the first ship of Ensign Samuel L. Gravely, who served on the ship as its Engineering Officer, and was the first African-American naval officer to eventually be promoted to Admiral. After the war, he devoted himself to writing until he was recalled to active duty with the United States Navy in 1948. He retired from the Navy in 1963 with the rank of Commander, and afterwards, he served as an Information Officer with the United States Department of Commerce, and later, as the Community Relations Division Chief of the Job Corps, Manpower Administration, United States Department of Labor. He authored several books, including "The Valley of the Larks" (1939), "Battle Report: The Middle Phase" (co-author, 1947), and "Black Company: The Story of PC 1264" (1972), along with numerous articles and short stories.