Vice-Admiral John Hughes-Hallett CB DSO (1 December 1901 – 5 April 1972) was a British naval commander and politician.
Educated at Bedford School, Hughes-Hallett had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy, beginning as a Midshipman on HMS Lion, May 1918.
Although this was met with derision at the time, the concept of Mulberry Harbours began to take shape when Hughes-Hallett moved to be Naval Chief of Staff to the Operation Overlord planners.
On 1 May 1943, Commodore Hughes-Hallett succeeded Rear Admiral Philip Vian as the head of the Naval Branch at Supreme Allied Command.
Vernon in Portsmouth was the navy's Torpedo training centre and he had to cope with the problems arising from the recent creation of the Electrical branch.
He then commanded HMS Illustrious'(1948–1949) and after that was Vice-Controller of the Navy in Bath, 1950–1952, and then Flag Officer, Heavy Squadron, Home Fleet, 1952–3.
[1] Captain Hughes-Hallett was a major character in the Canadian CBC miniseries Dieppe, in which he was played by actor Robert Joy.
[2] Around 1990, a street in Caen (France) was named after Commodore Hughes-Hallett,[3] linking avenue Amiral Mountbatten to avenue Maréchal Montgomery and rue Colonel Rémy, in a district close to the Mémorial pour la Paix museum, where a majority of streets commemorate personalities linked with the Second World War, the Résistance, and the subsequent making of the European Community.