Tony Nichols, our Canadian correspondence comments: I always enjoy reading the NHR. What caught my eye in the article you wrote on Admiral Patey was the name Seydlitz which you describe ...
Biographies and personal histories
The Naval Ode and Laurence Binyon
By Driftwood There are moments when we first gaze upon a work of art, whether in the pictorial or written form, and are drawn to its beauty and are inspired. ...
Able Seaman Frank Boston: Covering the Gallipoli Landings
This story first appeared in the April 2014 edition of Chatterbox, a magazine published by the Brisbane Water (NSW) Branch of Legacy and is reproduced with their kind permission. Frank ...
An Isolated War Grave: Warrant Officer John Henry Davies
This article was first published by the Military History & Heritage Society of Victoria and is reproduced with their kind permission and that of the author. In the far north ...
The Sydney Cenotaph and its Guardians
By an unknown serviceman The majority of our members will have paid their respects at the Cenotaph in Martin Place and gazed at its two imposing cast bronze sentinels. These ...
Occasional Paper 130: Our First Fleet Commander – Admiral Sir George Patey
By Walter Burroughs A summary of this paper was presented at a conference held from 30 September to 01 October 2014 at the Universidad Andres Bello, Chile on the maritime ...
Lieutenant Commander Arthur Callaway, DSO, RANVR and the courage of HM Trawler Lady Shirley
Courage of HM Trawler lady Shirley Tow hundred miles west-south-west of the Canary Islands the Atlantic rollers surge endlessly eastward towards the African shore. In October 1941, these were dangerous ...
Cry Havoc
Brian Luttrell entered the RANVR in September 1939; a short while later he was off to war as an Ordinary Signalman in HMS Kanimbla. More than two years elapsed before ...
The Early Years of the Electrical Branch in the Royal Australian Navy
By Des Miller Most generations can look back upon significant changes but in our modern naval history there have only been two revolutionary changes, from wood to iron and then ...
They Also Served: Able Seaman Herbert Charles Willans RANR (1888 – 1914)
By Leyland Wilkinson On a recent visit to the Bita Paka War Cemetery near Rabaul I came across a single headstone to the memory of Able Seaman Herbert Charles Willans, ...
Letter: A Postcard from Afghanistan
Most postcards gratefully received at the Boatshed are of the colourful glossy variety of well known landmarks sent to us from globetrotting members. Recently your Editor received one of a ...
Up the Dardanelles and Back
By Ken Wright This article covering the exploits of Commander Norman Holbrook, VC, RN, is a timely reminder of these events which occurred a century ago. Surprisingly, looking through back ...
The RAN on D-Day
By Greg Swinden With 2014 being the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day landings it is timely to remember the part played by the Royal Australian Navy in Operation Overlord on ...
Manus Island in 1949
By Cdre Des Miller, RAN, Rtd Given the present level of political concern with events in these islands the attached commentary by one of our distinguished members who served there ...
Fiji and two Commodores
By Walter Burroughs The Fijian Islands are strategically situated in the southwest Pacific straddling the trade route between the eastern seaboard of Australia and the west coast of the United ...
Instructor Captain Richard Gerard Fennessy DSC RAN
By Noel Burgess This extraordinary story concerns a country schoolmaster who mainly served through WW II in one ship in which he won the DSC and afterwards rose to become the ...
Tales from the Dockyard – Lawrence Beare Westaway
By Norman Rivett During the period 9 February 1889 to 15 February 1991 at HM Naval Establishment Garden Island (later referred to as HM Naval Dockyard) there were, in addition ...
Memoirs of George William Rayner 15 Oct 1886 – 18 July 1962
These important memoirs provided by Robert Rayner are taken from his grandfather’s handwritten notes discovered in the family’s Sydney home in 2007. Early Life in Prison! I was born at ...
Louis Brennan (1852-1932) – the Wizard of Oz
By Mike Turner Louis Brennan was a brilliant and prolific inventor. Two of his best known inventions were a gyro-stabilised train for a monorail and a type of helicopter, but ...
Francis James Ranken
By Hector Donohue Early Career Francis James Ranken was born in 1864 at ‘Saltram’, Eglinton, near Bathurst. He was the eldest son of James Australian Ranken and was educated at ...
HMAS Hobart – The Skilful Survivor
As told to our Editor by Cyril Rayner The Australian Navy started the war with three relatively modern Modified Leander Class light cruisers. Of these fine ships much has been ...
Those Amazing Young Men and their Flying Machines
…brought to life with memorabilia from an Australian air ace found on Queensland rubbish tip By Jim Craigie The Great Find A World War I pilot’s helmet worn by Australia’s greatest ...
Letter: HMAS Platypus and the Darwin Blitz February 1942
Dear Editor I have just read G. W. Ireland’s recounting of his experience in Darwin during the first and continuing raids and I would like to add that my father, ...
Vincent Patrick Taylor (Captain Penfold) – The Man who Bombed the Fleet
By Cris George There was plenty of aerial activity attached to this year’s Fleet Entry celebrations in Sydney Harbour. What you might not know is that there was an aerial ...
They Also Served – Supply Assistant John Norman Carr Hordern (1924 – 2013)
‘They also serve who only stand and wait’ is the final line taken from the great English poet John Milton’s sonnet on his blindness. In a modern context this implies ...