Career
Promoted to Captain in 1935, McCarthy served in World World War II commanding HMS Ajax from 1940 and HMS Anson from 1943, taking part in Operation Tungsten against the German battleship Tirpitz in April 1944, and then becoming Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff in 1944. After the War he was appointed Rear Admiral, Destroyers in the Mediterranean Fleet and then Commander-in-Chief, South Atlantic Station from 1948. He retired in 1950.