Background
Richard Greville Arthur Wellington Stapleton-Cotton was born at Wellington Barracks, London, on 7 November 1873, the second son of Colonel the Honourable Richard Southwell George Stapleton-Cotton (1849-1925), of Plas Llwynon, Anglesey, and his wife, the Honourable Jane Charlotte Methuen, daughter of Frederick Henry Paul Methuen, second Baron Methuen. His father was the younger son of the second Viscount Combermere and had been the Inspector-General of Police in Guiana from 1889 to 1891, was an officer in the Wiltshire Regiment, having served in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and in Bechuanaland in 1885, and served as a Justice of the Peace for Shropshire and Cheshire.
Career
He rose to the rank of admiral during his career. Ancestry
Stapleton-Cotton entered the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1887. He was promoted to midshipman two years later and then became a Sub-Lieutenant in 1893, lieutenant two years later, commander in 1905 and captain in 1913.
He commanded the Royal Naval College at Osborne from 1906 to 1910.
Promoted to rear-admiral in 1923 and then to vice-admiral in 1928, he was placed on the retired list by 1931. In 1932, he was promoted to the rank of admiral in the retired list.
From 1928 to 1932, Stapleton-Cotton served as Gentleman Usher of the Scarlet Rod, and then as Registrar and Secretary of the Order of the Bath from 1932 to 1948. In the latter capacity, he attended the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1937 and took part in the procession into the Abbey.
Admiral Stapleton-Cotton died on 5 January 1953, aged 79, in Merionethshire.
He left an estate worth over £24,000. Bibliography
General Electric Cokayne (1895), The Complete Peerage, 1st edition, volume 5. Field Artillery Crisp (1914), Visitation of England and Wales, volume 18.
A.C. (before Christ) Fox-Davies (1929), Armorial Families, seventh edition
