Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton, GBE, KCB, KCMG, DSO (20 April 1884 – 4 September 1964) was a Royal Navy officer.

He was in command of the submarine HMS E13 when, under attack from German vessels, it ran aground off the Danish coast during the First World War.

On 18 August 1915 Layton's submarine, HMS E13, was ordered to the Baltic to assist the Russians, but he ran aground on Saltholm off the Danish coast.

Layton broadcast a message to the Malayan people, telling them of the improvements to defence on the arrival of these two capital ships in Singapore.

Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and temporary rank of Admiral in March 1942,[3] with wide-ranging powers that subordinated the civilian authorities.

Defences and organisation were inadequate; harbour facilities were inefficiently run with many transports left waiting in exposed anchorages and Layton was horrified.

On 5 April 1942 Japanese aircraft attacked Colombo, Ceylon, sinking an auxiliary cruiser, a submarine depot ship and a destroyer.

It could have been far worse; reacting to intelligence reports, warships and merchant ships had been ordered to disperse from harbours where they would have been easy targets.

On 9 April the Japanese attacked Trincomalee harbour and later found and sank an aircraft carrier, a destroyer and a corvette, all at sea.

[7] Arthur Bryant, in Turn of the Tide, puts the contribution made by Admiral Layton in a very positive light.

"Thanks to the timely action of the island's Commander-in-Chief what had happened in the Ceylon skies over Easter proved one of the turning points of the war...

Through the foresight shown by the Chiefs of Staff (in appointing one supreme Commander, Layton, to the island) and the presence of mind of the two admirals to whom the island and the Eastern Fleet had been entrusted, the air defences of Ceylon – the key to the Indian Ocean – remained unbroken and the fleet safe at sea.