Joining the Royal Naval College at Osborne on the Isle of Wight in 1913 at the age of 13, Brian de Courcy-Ireland was subjected to the spartan naval discipline of ...
Biographies and personal histories
Commander Frederick Darley RN & the Wanhsien Incident
HMAS Maryborough & Charles Moses-Escape from Java 1942
Rear Admiral Gordon (“Buster”) Crabb RAN DSC CBE (1917-2001)
REAR ADMIRAL Gordon John Branstone CRABB, DSC • Born London 5 July 1917, of Commander & Mrs S.G. Crabb • Entered RANC, Flinders Naval Depot 1932 • Awarded Kings Medal ...
Obituary: Admiral Sir Anthony Synnot KBE AO (1922-2001)
Born at Corowa, NSW and educated at Geelong Grammar School. Anthony Synnot joined the RAN as a cadet midshipman in 1939 as a Special Entry and trained in Britain with Prince ...
The Contribution of Merchant Seamen During the Fall of Crete – 1941
It is not always appreciated that British and Australian merchant seamen served ashore (probably inadvertently) during the withdrawal of Allied forces from Greece and subsequently, Crete. One such story deserves ...
Book review: Memoirs: Mostly Musical
Title: Memoirs Mostly Musical Author: Cedric Ashton Publisher: self-published The reviewer found it most difficult to be objective in his assessment of this book, but to one who is fond of music ...
Cedric H Ashton MBE (1910-2001) – Artist, Musician, Sailor
In the company of Cedric Ashton one covers a tranquillity of life – artist, musician, sailor and a man’s man of capital ship dimensions! Cedric spent his teenage years in ...
Captain Fogarty Fegen VC RN (1891-1940)
Missing were the usherettes and the popcorn
Book Review: In the Navy
IN THE NAVY, by D. R. Rickard This is a little gem of a book. It is a sailor’s eye view of life in the Australian Navy in the 1960s ...
The Sound of Torpedoes
At least once a year, somewhere in Australia, the Oscar winning movie “The Sound of Music” is aired on television. Many members are aware of the main plot; the story ...
Book Review: Very Ordinary Officer
Very Ordinary Officer describes itself on the cover as the social and naval story of a Yorkshire-born Australian called Geoff Feasey. The two strands of the story run side by ...
Obituary: Captain Barbara MacLeod AM
“To achieve the marvellous,” wrote Tom Robbins, “it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought”. When a 24 year-old school teacher from Capel in Western Australia went by train ...
Obituary: Captain Gerald Haynes
Captain Gerald Haynes’s wartime career combined skill and daring at sea and in the air. He was officer of the watch in HMS Victorious in the chase that destroyed the German ...
Captain Glossop describes Emden action to Banjo Patterson
Letters – Australians at War documentary
The 1999-2000 Federal Budget provided $5 million for the production of a TV documentary series, Australians at War, which will cover the major conflicts in which Australia has participated, and ...
Obituary: Rupert Robison
Rupert Robison Born: Springwood, May 29, 1909 Died: Rozelle, June 7, 1999 Lieutenant-Commander Rupert Robison was captain of HMAS Voyager when it ran aground on Timor in 1942. The commander ...
Captain Harry L. Howden OBE, CBE, RAN
Letter – late LCDR Geoffrey Ingleton
Obituary: Commander James (Curly) FAHEY
James Fahey, AM, RAN Commander, 1924-1998 Known throughout the Royal Australian Navy and the veterans’ community as “Curley”, Commander James Anthony Fahey has died at the age of 74. His death has left ...
Captain Harvey Newcomb RN – Newcomb Building, HMAS Watson
On October 28, 1997 the Royal Australian Navy’s Surface Warfare School Building was formally renamed the “Newcomb Building”, commemorating the service of Captain Harvey Mansfield Newcomb. At the end of ...
Obituary: Admiral Sir Victor Smith AC, 1913-1998
Named for his uncle, the famous Australian cricketer Victor Trumper, Admiral Sir Victor Smith, who has died in Canberra at the age of 85, was the first RAN officer to ...
