glojo
"As far as I am aware there is not one single senior Naval officer that has had any experience of serving aboard a conventional aircraft carrier?"
Something that was written during the Libyan campaign jogged my memory that the 1SL had served on a carrier so I checked.
The current 1SL commanded the Aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious as did the previous 1SL.
(and while checking the above was correct, I noticed that Admiral Sir George Zambella also served on the HMS Illustrious as a helicopter pilot).