He served as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff from 1995 to 1998: in that capacity he played a key role in the 1998 Strategic Defence Review carried out by the Labour Government that had come to power a year earlier.

[1] Slater was educated in his early years at the Edinburgh Academy before attending Sedbergh School and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth.

[1] Slater is a great nephew of Admiral of the Fleet The Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope who served as First Sea Lord during the Second World War.

[1] He was posted to the Directorate of Naval Operations at the Ministry of Defence in 1973 and, following promotion to captain on 30 June 1976,[9] he was given command of the destroyer HMS Kent in August of that year.

[1] He has been a Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire,[16] an Elder Brother of Trinity House, a Prime Warden of the Shipwrights' Company, and a Freeman of the City of London.