Murray Sueter

Rear-Admiral Sir Murray Fraser Sueter (1872 to 1960) was a Royal Navy officer noted as a pioneer of naval aviation. He entered the navy as a cadet on Britannia in 1886, became a specialist in torpedo warfare and worked with submarines, a background that produced his 1907 book The Evolution of the Submarine Boat, Mine and Torpedo. In 1909 he supervised the construction of the airship Mayfly, an experiment that failed, and in 1912 he was given command of the Admiralty Air Department, where he oversaw the creation of the Royal Naval Air Service. During the First World War he pursued the launching of torpedoes from aircraft, became superintendent of aircraft construction in 1915 and promoted armoured cars, which led to his involvement in early tank development. After clashing with the Admiralty he was retired as a rear admiral in 1920, was knighted in 1934 and sat as Member of Parliament for Hertford until 1945. He also wrote Airmen or Noahs and The Evolution of the Tank.