Rear-Admiral Chris Stanford, who has died aged 70, was a naval officer who after a successful career became a notable headhunter.

As a junior officer he served in HM Ships Puma, Jupiter, Hubberston, Exmouth, Newcastle, Antrim, Brilliant and Fife, and later commanded the frigate Boxer 1988–89 and the destroyer Coventry 1993–94.

As a staff officer, Stanford was assistant director in the Directorate of Operational Requirements (1990–93), and then a student at the Royal College of Defence Studies. As a commodore he was director of Naval Staff Duties (1995–97), and director of Operational Capability in the Ministry of Defence (1997–98).

However, having been selected early for promotion to commander and then to captain, Stanford reached the top of the captain’s list when the Navy was shrinking, and there were no seagoing commands available.

Instead he was promoted to rear-admiral and took the appointment of chief of staff to the Surgeon General (1999–2002), which had never been held by other than a medical officer.

This was a time of great change in the tri-service medical services which, according to one report “had suffered swingeing cuts leading to the closure of every military hospital and left the organisation with the worst staff-retention records in the Forces”.

Stanford brought his considerable tact, intellect, quickness of mind, and command of detail to bear on the challenges, and was made a member of the Order of St John in 2001 and appointed CB in 2002.

Christopher David Stanford was born on February 12 1950 in Stockport, Cheshire, his parents having met aboard the troopship RMS Ormonde on a voyage to Bombay in 1944: Elspeth Harrison, from a long line of Methodist ministers, was a captain in the RAMC, and Bill Stanford an officer in the Orient Line.

Bill became a director of EMI and young Chris’s access to early releases of the latest Beatles’ albums transformed him into a minor celebrity at St Paul’s School, London.

He also inherited the telescope of his ancestor, the mathematician and astronomer John Couch Adams who discovered the planet Neptune in 1845, and, as a teenager bought a 16-foot cabin cruiser, which he and his brother motored through the canals to Wales and back.

A career at sea beckoned and Stanford joined Dartmouth in 1967 just when the Navy was toying with the idea of university education . He was nominated to Merton College, Oxford where he read Modern History and French.

After retiring from the Navy in 2002, he made a seamless transition into a second career as a headhunter at Odgers Berndtson, which he helped to develop into a leading healthcare and life sciences practice.

Stanford collected antique gardening tools and agricultural implements, 19th century hog-scraper candlesticks, contemporary ceramics, Victorian watercolours and marine paintings. 

An interest in railway history led to him buying and renovating an 1880s railway carriage which, after delivery to their Somerset garden, he and his wife converted into a holiday let.

The front elevation facing the house was painted a shade of pale grey, whilst the rear side was resplendent in full Great Western chocolate and cream livery, complete with gold lettering and crests.

Diagnosed in 2012 with cancer and given less than a year to live, Stanford resisted self-pity, remained bright and positive, and continued to play an active part at work and in the community. A leading member of the Royal Naval Lay Readers Society, he was sustained by his Christian faith and inspired by his love of family.

In 1972 Stanford married the artist Angela “Annie” Gardner, daughter of the marine artist Derek Gardner, who survives him with their three daughters and a son.

Rear-Admiral Chris Stanford, born February 12 1950, died July 10 2020