Arthur David Torlesse  Rear Admiral Arthur David Torlesse, (24 January 1902 – 19 July 1995) was a Royal Navy officer. He commanded the escort carrier during the latter part of the Second World War, and the aircraft carrier during the early months of the Korean War. In 1952, he commanded the task force that supported Operation Hurricane, the first British nuclear weapons test. Arthur David Torlesse was born in Bognor Regis in West Sussex on 24 January 1902, the son of a Royal Navy officer, Captain Arthur Ward Torlesse, and his wife Harriet Mary (née Jeans). He had a brother, Ynyr John Torlesse. He was educated at Park High School, Stanmore, Royal Naval College, Osborne, which he entered in 1915, and Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He served as a midshipman with the Grand Fleet during the First World War. Torlesse was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant on 15 May 1922, and served on . He was promoted to lieutenant on 15 June 1923. He joined the crew of the aircraft carrier on 28 May 1925, and qualified as an air observer with the Fleet Air Arm. In this role he subsequently served on in 1927 and then joined in 1928, where he was serving when promoted to lieutenant commander on 18 August 1931. He married Sheila Mary Susan Darroch, the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Darroch, 6th of Gourock, a retired Army officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, on 29 April 1933. They two sons, Charles David and Anthony John, and a daughter, Susan. After attending the staff course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, Torlesse became operations officer on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet, on the battleship in July 1935. He was promoted to commander on 31 December. After attending a tactical course at HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, in 1936, he was served on the battlecruiser . This was followed by a posting to the Far East as the operations officer on the staff of Commodore, Malaya, based at the Singapore Naval Base, and for a time he was also the Naval Attaché to Thailand in Bangkok. Returning to Britain, Torlesse became executive officer of the cruiser on 6 July 1939. He joined the staff of Rear Admiral, Naval Air Stations at HMNS Daedalus (also known as RNAS Lee-on-Solent) on 8 July 1940. On 12 January 1942, he became an Assistant Director of Naval Air Division at the Admiralty.