Elizabeth Hoyer-Millar

Dame Evelyn Louisa Elizabeth Hoyer-Millar, was a British naval officer who served as Commandant of the Women's Royal Naval Service from 1958 to 1960.

Naval career

Hoyer-Millar, the daughter of Robert Christian Hoyer-Millar and Muriel Rosa Lillian Hoyer-Millar, served in the Voluntary Aid Detachment 1939–41, then joined the Women's Royal Naval Service in 1942. She was commissioned as a second officer in 1943, and later was in charge of the first party of WRNS to land in Normandy.
Hoyer-Millar was promoted to first officer then, in 1945, to acting chief officer. She was superintendent of the Air branch and then the Training branch of the WRNS before becoming commandant of the WRNS 1958–60. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1952 New Year Honours, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1960 Birthday Honours. She retired to Scotland and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Angus in 1971.

Later life

In 1960, Hoyer-Millar was among six distinguished women at a Women of the Year Lunch who were asked "If you were not yourself, who would you like to be?" Hoyer-Millar said that she would like to have been Helen of Troy. "Lady Hamilton I rather obviously considered," she said, "but I think my career might have been less successful and happy had I had the interests and desires that brought her to fame." Hoyer-Millar died on 26 February 1984, aged 73.