Stephen Roskill

Stephen Wentworth Roskill
Born	1 August 1903 London, England
Died	4 November 1982 Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1921–1949
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	Second World War
Awards	Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Cross
Relations	Eustace Roskill, Baron Roskill
Other work	Royal Navy Official Historian of the Second World War Senior Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge University

Captain Stephen Wentworth Roskill, CBE, DSC, FBA, DLitt (1 August 1903 – 4 November 1982) was a senior career officer of the Royal Navy, serving during the Second World War and, after his enforced medical retirement, served as the official historian of the Royal Navy from 1949 to 1960. He is now chiefly remembered as a prodigious author of books on British maritime history.

The son of John Henry Roskill, K.C. a barrister, and Sybil Dilke, Stephen Roskill was born in London, England and joined the Royal Navy in 1917, attending the Royal Naval College at Osborne and then the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, Devon. As a midshipman Roskillserved on the light cruiser Durban on the China Station before returning to practice gunnery at Greenwich and Portsmouth.

In 1930, he married Elizabeth Van den Bergh, with whom he had seven children. Roskill served at sea as gunnery officer of the carrier Eagle on the China Station from 1933–1935. Afterwards he instructed at the gunnery school HMS Excellent, and in 1936 he was given the prize gunnery appointment in the navy, that of the newly reconstructed dreadnought Warspite till 1939, was a member of the Naval Staff, 1939–1941, then served as executive officer of HMNZS Leander in 1941–1944.

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