Born in Melbourne, Australia, Villiers first went to sea at age 15 and sailed on board traditionally rigged vessels, including the full-rigged ship Joseph Conrad.

He was awarded the British Distinguished Service Cross as a Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve during the Second World War.

Villiers had a desire to document the great sailing ships before it was too late, and Grace Harwar was one of the last working full-riggers.

The voyage took 138 days and was filmed as The Cape Horn Road; Villiers took photographs, serving as a record of that period in full-rigged working ships.

With de Cloux as captain, Parma won the unofficial "grain race" between the ships of the trade in 1932, arriving in 103 days despite broaching in a gale.

He used the environment of the sea to build character and discipline in his young crew and, with his contemporaries Irving and Exy Johnson, he helped form the modern concept of sail training.

[citation needed] Returning almost two years later, Villiers sold the Joseph Conrad to George Huntington Hartford.

He commanded "flights" of LCI(L)s on D-Day in the Battle of Normandy, the Invasion of Sicily, and the Burma Campaign in the Far East.

Married in 1940 to his second wife Nancie, Villiers settled in Oxford, England, and continued to be active in sailing and writing.

Villiers produced a travel lecture film, Last of the Great Sea Dogs, which ran at the Dorothy Chandler pavilion in 1976.

[5] In 1978, Villiers weighed in that Francis Drake landed at New Albion at Point Reyes in Marin County, California.

[7] Civilization VI includes a quote from Villiers: "There is little man has made that approaches anything in nature, but a sailing ship does.