After his injury, Agar contributed to the completion of the aircraft carrier HMS Unicorn before taking charge at Greenwich. This wartime work receives little attention in accounts of his career. Divorce made promotion to substantive flag rank socially difficult in a period when even the king had abdicated in order to marry a divorcée. The Navy worked around that barrier by appointing Agar commodore, a position then conferred on a captain rather than held as a permanent substantive rank. On retirement, an officer in that position reverted to captain, preserving the distinction between responsibility and formal rank. Agar's path exposes the personnel constraints imposed by contemporary social convention and the service's effort to find roles for valuable experience.
Notable Point · 57:27-58:55
Unicorn work and commodore status keep Agar in wartime service
Agar's carrier-completion work and appointment as commodore show how the Navy retained a capable officer despite injury and contemporary social barriers to flag promotion.