Richard Coleridge, 4th Baron Coleridge

Richard Duke Coleridge, 4th Baron Coleridge was a captain in the Royal Navy and served as the first Executive Secretary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from 1952 to 1970. Coleridge was the son of Geoffrey Coleridge, 3rd Baron Coleridge of Ottery St. Mary and Jessie Alethea Mackarness. He married Cecilia Rosamund Fisher, daughter of Admiral Sir William Wordsworth Fisher, on 28 August 1936. Coleridge was educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, Isle of Wight and at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Devon, in England. In 1926 he was promoted to sub-lieutenant with seniority and in 1936 to lieutenant-commander. He served in World War II and was with the War Cabinet Office between 1940 and 1941