By Martin Linsley and Colin Randall. Sometime about now (late 2023 or early 2024) marks the 150th anniversary of someone playing the first game of tennis at some location in ...
Influential People
Occasional Paper 172: Dennis Adams, War Artist (1914 – 2001)
By Lorraine Fildes Dennis Adams was born in Sydney however when his father, a marine engineer, retired from the sea the family moved to a sheep property in Queensland. Stories ...
Queensland Mining meets First Sea Lord and Strikes Oil
Prepared from inspiration provided by our Queensland member and mining engineer Colin Randall. William Knox D’Arcy and John Arbuthnot Fisher both came from families with prominent distant relatives but they ...
A Bar of Soap
By Walter Burroughs That fine old Aussie expression ‘I don’t know you from a bar of soap’ has now fallen out of favour as we move from the utilitarian bar ...
Occasional Paper 163: Able Seaman Frank McGovern OAM 1919 – 2023
By Commander Steve Youll OAM RAN (Retd) Frank McGovern, at 19 years of age joined the Royal Australian Navy on the 30 August 1939. After initial training he was posted ...
Warrant Officer of the Navy
The previous incumbent, WO Deb Butterworth OAM CSM & Bar, held this prestigious position for three years until December 2022 when WO Andrew Bertoncin OAM became the tenth Warrant Officer ...
The Enterprising Enderbys
By Walter Burroughs The English Civil War During the 18th and 19th centuries the name Enderby was well-known in shipping circles in Great Britain and its colonies in America and ...
The Greatest Event in our Time – Moon landing
By Doris Shearman ‘I Think It’s Gonna Be a Long Long Time’ – from Elton John’s 1972 iconic song ‘Rocket Man’ about an astronaut preparing for a space mission. Introduction ...
Occasional Paper 140 : The Factors that Led to the Formation of the RAN in 1911
This short account of the May 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea focuses on the strategically significant outcomes of the battle and how they related to the future of World War 2 and Australians in particular. ...
Occasional Paper 135: Was Heihachiro Tōgō Japan’s Horatio Nelson?
In this paper Richard Broinowski makes an interesting comparison between Admiral Lord Nelson and Japan’s Heihachiro Tōgō born in 1847 to a samurai family and hero of the battle of Tsushima Strait during which the fledgling Japanese Navy achieved a Trafalgar like victory over the Russian Fleet. ...
Occasional Paper 132: The First Admiral: Admiral Sir G. Francis Hyde, KCB, CVO, CBE
By Lieutenant Commander A.W. Grazebrook First published in the June 1974 edition of the Naval Historical Review. The majority of the more senior retired officers of the Royal Australian Navy ...
The Parker Family and their Contribution to the RAN
With the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, there have been many fine tributes to his memory. A number of these mention an Australian born Private ...
Book Review: Prince Philip Revealed
Prince Philip Revealed by Ingrid Seward. Published in 2020 by Simon & Schuster, available in hard cover, paperback and e-book. Her Majesty the Queen, whilst speaking at the Banqueting House ...
Book Review: Collins of the Sydney
By Tony Macdougall, published by Clarion Editions, 77 Lewis Street, Mudgee, NSW 2850. Tel: 02 6372 1387 or email: macdougallburns@bigpond.com.au. A quality paperback of 576 pages with many photographs ...
Matthew Flinders: A personal assessment
Peter Ashley (2005) perhaps encapsulates an apt description of Flinders as a person: Driven, ambitious, sometimes arrogant and occasionally reckless, few navigators had a greater share of misfortune than Captain ...
Occasional Paper 31: Captain Edmund Anstice, RN
July 2018 The following is a brief passage from the memoirs of Geoffrey Dobbin who was both a Merchant Navy and Royal Naval Reserve Officer. Geoffrey Dobbin was related through ...
Book Review: Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy
Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy. By Michael Pembroke, Hardie Grant Books, Melbourne, 2013. Hardback, 354 pages, rrp $34.40 To his biography of Arthur Phillip the author adds – sailor, ...
Our First Engineer Admiral Vice Admiral Sir William Clarkson, KBE, CMG, RAN.
By Chris Clark When Engineer Rear-Admiral Sir William Clarkson retired from the Royal Australian Navy on 1 November 1922 with the honorary rank of Vice-Admiral, it brought to a close ...
Book Review: Treachery
Treachery by Julian Stockwin. Published by Hodder and Stoughton, 2008. rrp $32.99 Reviewed by Barry Nobes Treachery is ninth in a series of Napoleonic War naval stories by Julian Stockwin, ...
Book Review: Cochrane the Dauntless
Cochrane the Dauntless. The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane. By David Cordingly. Published by Bloomsbury and available from Allen and Unwin Book Publishers This is yet another biography of ...
Book Review: The Plimsoll Sensation
The Plimsoll Sensation: The Great Campaign to Save Lives at Sea. By Nicolette Jones. Published by Abacus Books 2007. ISBN 978-0-349-11720-1. Reviewed by Sandy Saunders This book chronicles, in great ...
Book Review: Captain Eric Nave, Australian Codebreaker
A Man of Intelligence – The Life of Captain Eric Nave, Australian Codebreaker Extraordinary By Dr Ian Pfennigwerth, Captain, RAN (Rtd) Reviewed by LCDR Ron Robb, RAN (Rtd) This book ...
Book Review: A Man of Intelligence -The Life of Eric Nave
A Man of Intelligence – The Life of Captain Eric Nave, Australian Codebreaker Extraordinary. By Dr Ian Pfennigwerth, Captain, RAN (Rtd). Publisher Rosenberg Publishing P/L, Dural, 2006. Reviewed by LCDR ...
Book Review: Who’s Who in Naval History: 1550 to Present
Who’s Who in Naval History: from 1550 to the Present By Alastair Wilson and Joseph F. Callo Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, Oxon, 2004. Reviewed by LCDR Glen Kerr, RAN ...
Book Review: Into the Blue – Boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before
Into the Blue – Boldly going where Captain Cook has gone before by Tony Horwitz Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2002. 480pp., maps, index, bibliog.,pb., rrp $29.95 Reviewed by Bob Nicholls ...