Cotton, George Frederick, Sir (1877 -1943)

Sir George Frederick Cotton was the son of George Cotton of Clapham. Educated at Stationers' School and King's College, London, he was appointed Second Division Clerk at the Local Government Board in 1898, and at the Admiralty in 1899. Among his many appointments he was Staff Clerk in 1913, 1st division Clerk in 1914, a Principal in the Secretary's Department of the Admiralty in 1921, Director of Naval Victuallings in 1931 1936, Principal Assistant Secretary 1936 1939, and Under Secretary to the Admiralty 1939 1942. He was made a Member of the Victorian Order in 1924, an O.B.E. in 1927, a Companion of the Order of the Bath 1939, and knighted in 1942. He married, firstly, in 1906, Edith Mary Barrell, only daughter of Charles Barrell, of Ipswich. She died in 1931, and he married secondly, in 1933, Ethel, daughter of Richard Osmond Hearson, of Westleigh, in Devon.