RETURNING home after his final tour in the Navy as head of the British defence liaison staff in Canberra, Anthony Davies was selected in 1966 to be the first Warden of St George’s House in Windsor Castle. This institution was created under the direct patronage of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, who wished to inject new life into the College of St George.

The arrival in 1962 of the energetic and far-seeing Robin Woods as Dean of Windsor was a catalyst for change. Accommodation was restructured so that the 17th-century building that is now St George’s House was freed, finances were improved and — appropriately because of the long association of the Order with St George’s Chapel — five influential Knights of the Garter were appointed to the council and others made generous contributions.

St George’s House is now the venue for some 70 gatherings a year of people from all walks of life who wish to consider the relevance of Christianity and other moral codes to the development of modern society, ethics in a Post-Modern world, the meaning of vocation and dedication in public and commercial service and a wide range of other such topics. It also provides midlife training for the clergy.

Davies was suggested as a suitable candidate for Warden by Earl Mountbatten of Burma, at that time Chief of Defence Staff. The selectors were “taken by Davies’s wide social insights, his committed churchmanship and his clear administrative ability”. For seven years his “naval” approach to punctuality, dress and manners became a byword in the rather military atmosphere of the castle and his contribution to the establishment, achievement and reputation of the institution was widely acclaimed. He was appointed CVO for his services in 1972.

He was to the fore at the opening of St George’s House by the Queen in October 1966, and received more than one personal letter from the Duke of Edinburgh on matters relating to the house and Christianity.

Born in Madras, India, where his father was president of the Law College, Anthony Davies went to Dartmouth in 1926 and to sea in 1929 in the battleships Barham and Warspite in the Atlantic Fleet before commissions in the cruiser Despatch in the Mediterranean and in the destroyer flotilla leader Duncan on the China station. Qualifying as a specialist gunnery officer in 1938, he returned to sea as the “second G” or deputy gunnery officer of the battlecruiser Repulse.

He joined the Tribal-class destroyer flotilla leader Cossack in early 1940 as the flotilla gunnery officer under the formidable Captain (afterwards Admiral Sir Philip) Vian and took part in April in the Second Battle of Narvik.

That battle was a bright spot in an otherwise disastrous campaign to counter the German occupation of Norway. The risky decision to send the battleship Warspite inside the fiords was rewarded by the destruction of a further eight large German fleet destroyers and other vessels and a permanent impairment of the German Navy. Cossack was badly damaged in the action but sank the destroyer Erich Giese with torpedoes.

In October Vian’s group had a successful night action against Germans shipping off the Norwegian coast. In the spring of 1941, Vian’s group of four Tribals and the Polish destroyer Piorun were detached from convoy escort and ordered to carry out a night attack, which was beaten off, on the crippled battleship Bismarck. Bismarck was sunk by Home Fleet warships the next day, May 27.

Cossack’s operations in the Mediterranean included the escort of the successful Operation Halberd Malta convoy and the bombardment of ports in Sardinia. During a violent convoy action against U-boats west of Gibraltar in October 1941, Cossack was torpedoed by U563 and it foundered four days later.

After a tour in the experimental section of the gunnery school, Davies was next appointed in July 1943 to the large carrier Indefatigable, then building at Clydebank, and served with her throughout the actions in the East Indies and Pacific against the Japanese that culminated in the triumphant fleet assembly and surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay.

After the war he served on the staff of the C-in-C Mediterranean in Malta and at the gunnery school in Portsmouth. He was promoted to commander in 1946 and captain in 1951. His one seagoing command was the sloop Pelican on the South African station. As a captain, he was Captain of the Fleet — in charge of morale and discipline — for the Far East Fleet in 1957, and deputy director of naval intelligence in Whitehall from 1959. He was appointed CB in 1964 at the end of his tour in Canberra.

After his second retirement, from St George’s House in 1972, he took a degree with the Open University and busied himself with local church and charity work.

His wife, Peggy, whom he married in 1940, died in 1980. He is survived by their two sons and two daughters.

Rear-Admiral Anthony Davies, CB, CVO, Warden of St George’s House, Windsor Castle, 1966-72, was born in India on June 13, 1912. He died on January 14, 2003, aged 90.