Peter K. Kemp was educated in the Royal Naval colleges of Osbourne and Dartmouth. He served mainly in submarines until losing a leg in an accident in 1928. During World War II he was recalled to service in the Naval Intelligence Division, serving in the U-boat tracking room in the Operational Intelligence Centre. In the five years before and five years after the war he was a member of The Times editorial staff. In 1950 he was appointed Head of the Naval Historical Staff, Admiralty Archivist and Librarian, a post he occupied until 1968. Between 1952 and 1962 he was also editor of the RUSI Journal. He dies on 15 March 1992.