Admiral Sir George King-Hall, the last Royal Navy Commander-in-Chief of the Australia Station, was a proponent of an Australian navy and friend to Rear Admiral William Creswell. Sir George came ...
Naval history
The Unit Citation for Gallantry of the Royal Australian Navy Helicopter Flight Vietnam Extraordinary and Gallant
By CDR Ian (Max) Speedy, DSC, RANR With the passing of the years, we tend to forget just how defining the Vietnam War was in so many aspects. It was ...
Australian Merchant Navy Day – Remembrance Address
By LCDR Desmond Woods, RANR Membersof the Merchant Navy War Memorial Fund, Veterans, War Widows, Merchant Mariners, members of associated organisations, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. The maritime history of ...
They also Served: LCDR Mike Hickie DSC, RN & RAN, Rtd
Michael (Mike) Timothy Hickie had an extraordinary naval career in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy extending from 1936 to 1983; with a two year gap, this ...
David McFall and the Maritime Model Museum: Shutting up Shop
This article has been compiled with input from Angus McFall, Kevin Anstis and Richard Francis. David McFall, who was well known in maritime circles, passed over the bar on 4 ...
A Short History of STS Young Endeavour
By Isabelle Hazell Young Endeavour, the tall ship making waves in the lives of young people all over Australia, has a history as rich as the lives it has impacted during ...
Occasional Paper 14: Interview with Lieutenant Commander Mackenzie Gregory, R.A.N. Rtd
Amended interview with Australians at War Film Archive This original interview is from this page, the Australians at War Film Archive. There is also a copy of the uncorrected interview ...
HDML 1321 and what she represents
Java is heaven, Burma is hell but you never come back alive from New Guinea – Japanese wartime saying An eagle-eyed member of our Society drew attention to this short ...
Royal Navy Colours of World War Two – Standard Camouflage Colours
Author James Duff Introduction In the final months of and in the years after World War Two, many resources, documents and records relating to Royal Navy camouflage were purposely destroyed. ...
Royal Navy Colours of World War Two – The Patterns 507, G10 and G45
Collaborative works by: Michael Brown, Sean Carroll, James Duff, Lindsay Johnson Introduction In the final months of and in the years after World War Two, many resources, ...
Letter: HDML 1321 Update
Dear Walter I have been following your articles and updates on 1321 with interest, and think you may have a use for this informative paper cutting, recently uncovered in one of ...
Rear Admiral Claude Lionel Cumberiege and his influence on the RAN
The Naval Historical Society was recently favoured with copies of two volumes of an unpublished five volume set comprising the autobiography of Rear Admiral Cumberiege. The volumes came from his ...
Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps: Forerunner of the Women’s Royal Australian Naval Service
By Dr J. K. Haken The Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) was formed by Mrs. Florence Violet McKenzie in March 1939 at 9 Clarence Street, Sydney, months before WWII was ...
An American at War in the Pacific Memoirs of Chief Radioman John Ottomar Adams, USNR
A long standing member of our Society, David Mattiske, was a friend of John Adams who died early in 2017. David presented us with a self-published memoir of John Adams ...
Telegraphist William Wolseley Falconer RAN
By Richard Arundel* Telegraphist W.W. Falconer, who was the radio operator in AE2 when she penetrated the Dardanelles Straits in 1915, was born in Richmond, Victoria, on 14 October 1892 ...
Two Osborne Houses
To add confusion to our early naval history there are two residences named Osborne House which both became naval academies. The first of these was in England and the second ...
Naval Health Services Memorial
Over recent timeswhat was the Naval Health Services has undergone a significant transformation, becoming part of a unified Defence Health Services organisation. To many past members of the wider naval ...
They Also Served – LCDR Donald R Wilson, DSC, RANVR
Lieutenant Commander Don Wilson had a remarkable wartime career but as this was mostly spent on loan to the Royal Navy, there is little mention of his exploits in our ...
Naval Fuel Oil
By Peter Colthorpe With recent announcements that the redundant naval oil fuel installation beneath the Sydney Domain is to be used in an extension to the Art Gallery of NSW, ...
Portrait of the Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Jonathan Mead, AM, RAN
Portrait artist shave the luxury of many sittings with their subjects extending over hours, days and weeks, capturing just the right pose to illuminate expression and character. We mere scribes ...
Letter: The Kangaroo Symbol on HMA Ships
The picture of the commissioning of HMAS Hobart on the front cover of the December 2017 edition of the Naval Historical Review – particularly that of the red kangaroo symbol affixed ...
Letter: HMAS Patricia Cam families visit
The following email was recently received addressed to the President of the Naval Historical Society and your Editor from Michael Owen a Darwin based historian who operates Top End Heritage ...
Letter: HMAS Arunta and Operation Hamburger
Dear Editor The December 2017 edition of the NHR contains an article on the evacuation of Lancer Force from Timor by HMAS Arunta in January 1943. As my father was CO ...
Book Review: South Sea Argonaut – James Colnett and the Enlargement of the Pacific 1772 -1803
By Granville Allen Mawer. Published by Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2017. Paperback of 246 pages with black & white photographs, plans and illustrations. Available from booksellers and online from $44.00. ...
They Also Served – LCDR Norwood Pursey Morgan RAN
Three very ordinary looking cartons arrived at our office; within them lay dust covered volumes, the pages of which had not been turned in many a long day. But look ...