Admiral of the Fleet Sir Michael Patrick Pollock, GCB, LVO, DSC (19 October 1916 – 27 September 2006) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy who rose to become First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in the early 1970s.

[5] Pollock served in the Second World War, becoming first lieutenant of the old destroyer HMS Vanessa in October 1939, escorting shipping across the English Channel to supply the British Expeditionary Force in northern France, and protecting convoys in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

[5] On 18 November 1942, taking part in Operation Stoneage, the mission which effectively relieved the siege of Malta, Arethusa was hit by a torpedo bomber.

[7] Pollock was appointed gunnery officer on the heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk in October 1943, tasked with protecting convoys to and from north Russia.

[5] Alerted by Enigma intercepts decoded at Bletchley Park, and assisted by radar, his ship and fellow cruisers HMS Belfast and HMS Sheffield twice intercepted Scharnhorst and its six accompanying destroyers when they attempted to attack two Arctic convoys (JW 55B travelling to and RA 55A travelling from Murmansk) in late December 1943.

[5] He returned to HMS Excellent as a gunnery instructor in January 1946 and, having been promoted to lieutenant commander on 1 June 1946, became an application officer at the Admiralty Signals Research Establishment in August 1947.

[13] He became Commander of the Junior Officers' War Course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, in September 1952 and second-in-command of the light cruiser HMS Newcastle, the flagship of the Far East Fleet, in June 1954.

[6] Advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1969 Birthday Honours,[20] he became Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy in January 1970 and received promotion to full admiral on 21 April 1970.

[21] Admiral Sir Michael Le Fanu, the Chief of the Defence Staff-designate, retired suddenly due to ill health in late 1970.

[6] The new First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Peter Hill-Norton, was promoted in Le Fanu's place, and Pollock, having been advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1971 New Year Honours,[22] was suddenly invited to replace Hill-Norton as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in March 1971.

[6] During Pollock's term as First Sea Lord, the Navy was involved in the "Cod War" with Iceland in 1972, the 1973 oil crisis and deep cuts in defence expenditure.