Peter Woodhead


Sir Anthony Peter Woodhead, is a former Royal Navy officer who served as Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic from 1991 to 1993.

Naval career

Educated at Leeds Grammar School, HMS Conway and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Woodhead joined the Royal Navy in 1962. He served in the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation in the 1960s and was given command of the frigates in 1974 and in 1975. He was appointed Director of Naval Operations and Trade in 1985, Commander of the aircraft carrier in 1986 and Flag Officer, Second Flotilla in 1988. He went on to be Flag Officer First Flotilla, in 1989. From 1990 to 1991 he was Flag Officer, Surface Flotilla. In 1991 he was appointed Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic, before retiring in 1994.

Later life

In retirement Woodhead became Prisons Ombudsman. In 2003, Alan Travis noted in UK newspaper The Guardian, "Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Woodhead, had his powers so clipped by the former Conservative home secretary, Michael Howard, that the small and little-known club that is the British and Irish Ombudsmen Association refused him membership on the grounds that he was not independent enough".

Family

In 1964 Woodhead married Carol; they have one son and one daughter. Lady Woodhead died in January 2016.