CHAPTER 28 PERSONALITIES OF HMAS NIRIMBA - SOME WHO HAVE SERVED AUSTRALIA IN HMAS NIRIMBA “They through all shapes of peril and of pain, Intent on honour, dared in thickest death To snatch the glonous deed” - John Dyer Rear Admiral Frank Leveson George CBE This officer was the first Commanding Officer of HMAS NIRIMBA and his strong character and dedication are still felt in HMAS NIRIMBA today. Born 15th March 1910, he entered the RAN College in 1924. He gained Colours for cricket and swimming and on passing out was awarded the prize for Physics and Chemistry and the prize for Practical Engineering. In addition he was top in engineering theory and in seamanship. He became a Midshipman in 1928, Sub- Lieutenant (Engineering) in 1931, Lieutenant (E) 1932 and Lieutenant Commander (E) in 1940. His first ship was HMAS MELBOURNE in 1927. His engineering course occupied the next four years and for three of those years he held the Farr Cup for Swimming Champion of the Royal Naval Engineering College. In 1932, he was appointed to HMAS AUSTRALIA in which ship he served during the Duke of Gloucester’s cruise. He was in the Mediterranean during the Abyssinian crisis and on returning to Australia supervised the fitting and trials of the first catapult for launching aircraft fitted in the RAN, aboard HMAS CANBERRA. Between 1936 and 1938 he served at Flinders Naval Depot, one year of this time being spent as instructor in engineering at the RAN College. At the outbreak of war in 1939, he was serving in HMAS VOYAGER, where he remained until the end of 1940, serving first in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and later in the Mediterranean with the 10th Destroyer Flotilla. For the next three years he was Assistant to the Director of Naval Engineering at Navy Office and then in February 1944 he joined HMAS AUSTRALIA and took part in her actions at Hollandia, Wakde, Biak, Morotai, Leyte and Lingayen. In 1945, he was appointed Officer in Charge Captain Cook Dock, being promoted to Commander (E) in the following year. Commander George held many senior naval engineering postings and was appointed in the rank of Captain in command of HMAS NIRIMBA in 1956. Later promoted to Commodore he was appointed Commodore Superintendent 0f Training in Command of HMAS CERBERUS from 1960 to 1962, being promoted to Rear Admiral and awarded the Companion of the Order of the British Empire prior to his retirement. This distinguished and industrious man began Law studies at the age of 70 and at the time of writing is doing well in his studies. Captain Daryl Robin Osmund Shaw Fox AM, RAN Captain Fox, Commanding Officer 0f HMAS NIRIMBA 1980-1982 joined the Royal Navy as a National Serviceman in 1954 and was commissioned as an Acting Sub-Lieutenant (L) Royal Naval Reserve in 1955. He served in HMS MODESTE as Weapons Electrical Engineering Officer and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1956. (The year of HMAS NIRIMBA’s commissioning.) He transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in 1959 and his first posting was as Weapons Electrical Engineering Officer in HMAS ANZAC. In 1962 he spent 10 months in the United Kingdom and the United States undergoing Communications Engineering courses and on his return to Australia joined the staff of the Director of Electrical Engineering in Navy Office Canberra. He was promoted Lieutenant Commander in 1964 and then spent a period as Base Electrical Officer at the Communications Station at Darwin. In 1967, he returned to sea as Skilled Hands at Sea 121 the Deputy Weapons Electrical Engineering Officer in HMAS MELBOURNE and was promoted to Commander in 1968. He returned to Navy Office as a member of the Project Team for the new Communications Stations in Darwin and in 1970 was appointed Assistant Director (Ship’s Systems) on the formation of the Directorate 0f Fleet Maintenance. In 1971 he was posted as Principal Overseer at Cockatoo Island Dockyard, where he remained for two years before rejoining HMAS MELBOURNE as Weapons Electrical Engineering Officer. In 1974, he became the Fleet Weapons Electrical Engineering Officer on the staff of the Flag Officer Commanding HM Australian Fleet. He became the Assistant Director of Fleet Maintenance (Weapons Systems) at Navy Office in 1976 until 1977 when he was promoted Captain and assumed the posting 0f Project Director for the Guided Missile Destroyer update. Captain Fox assumed command 0f HMAS NIRIMBA, Quakers Hill, New South Wales on 4th January 1980. He was appointed a Member 0f the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 1982 in recognition of his outstanding service in furthering the interests of naval trade training in HMAS NIRIMBA. In January 1983 he was appointed in command of HMAS Stirling, Garden Island, Western Australia. He was promoted to Commodore in 1984. Mr Wally Swann - Fitting and Machining Instructor Wally Swann joined the original civilian instructor staff 0f HMAS NIRIMBA on 30th April 1956 having already served 16 years in the Royal Australian Navy as an Engine Room Artificer. Born in Melbourne on 10th September 1918, he graduated from Collingwood Technical College in 1934 and commenced his apprenticeship as a Fitter and Machinist and on completion of his apprentice training he was employed at the Maribyrnong Munitions Depot until he joined the Royal Australian Navy at HMAS CERBERUS as an Engine Room Artificer on 27th March 1940. Wally’s first ship was HMAS HOBART in which he was serving when she was torpedoed by the Japanese on 2nd November 1943. He later served in HMAS SHROPSHIRE and BATAAN and left BATAAN as Chief Engine Room Artificer in 1949. For the next four years Wally was in charge 0f training Engine Room Artificers at the Engineering School HMAS CERBERUS until he transferred to the Naval Dockyard Police in Sydney. At this time discussions were being held regarding the formation 0f an RAN Apprentice Training Establishment. Captain F L George, the first Commanding Officer of HMAS NIRIMBA was given the task 0f selecting uniformed and civilian staff for HMAS NIRIMBA and that officer personally selected Wally Swann to take over Fitting and Machining instruction in HMAS NIRIMBA. Wally was appointed to NIRIMBA in 1956 as Technical Instructor Grade II and made a permanent officer in 1958. The task of establishing the training school in those days had to be met with a lot of patience and little in the way of training resources. The craft school began in building 259 on the eastern side of the Establishment adjacent to the Richmond railway line and it was not until the arrival of adequate machinery and equipment that the school moved to the hangars where it is domiciled today. Wally Swann and his three other technical instructor helpers were tasked with the job of re-establishing the Fitting and Machining machinery into the hangars. This excellent man retired from naval service in 1978 by which time he had devoted half of his life to the Navy and one third of his life to the advancement 0f naval apprentices. We in HMAS NIRIMBA have a lot to thank Wally Swann for. Mr Albert Charles Marshall - Fitting and Machining Instructor This gentleman served over twenty years in HMAS NIRIMBA as Fitting and Machining instructor. From 1933 to 1958 he had been associated with the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy either in a uniformed or civilian capacity. Born in England in 1917, the son of a Royal Marine, he spent his childhood living in or near various Royal Naval Establishments. Albert joined the 122 Skilled Hands at Sea Royal Navy as an Ordnance Artificer Apprentice in 1933 and on completion of Apprentice training went to HMS EXCELLENT, the Gunnery School at Whale Island to carry out a further twelve months Ordnance training. Albert went to sea first in HMS COURAGEOUS, then on to HMS ARK ROYAL when she first commissioned on 2nd December 1938. After war broke out in 1939, Albert Marshall had a very busy war, serving on many fronts and in many battles. He was in the Norwegian campaign, Atlantic convoys, attack on the French Fleet at Mersel Kabir, attack on the French at Dakar and took part in all but one of the Malta convoys. Albert was in ARK ROYAL when the ship was torpedoed in the Mediterranean on 13th November 1941. Albert’s next ship was HMS HOWE in which he saw service in the North Atlantic and Iceland and on the Arctic convoys to Russia. Next HOWE served in the Mediterranean taking part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy. Those tasks finished, the ship was deployed to Trincomalee in Ceylon to prepare for attacks on Japanese held Indonesia (Dutch East Indies). HOWE then became Flagship of the British Pacific Fleet and took part in the invasion of the Okinawa group of islands. Albert later served in HMS INDOMITABLE and VICTORIOUS and was then lent to the Irish Navy, being the first Ordnance Artificer in the Irish Navy. Emigrating to Australia postwar, Albert worked in the gun mounting section of Garden Island Naval Dockyard until he came to HMAS NIRIMBA. This man devoted much of his life to the good of naval apprentices and his retirement was a great loss to HMAS NIRIMBA. Chaplain Hugh Michael McDonald “Nineteen years a priest of Jesus Christ, 15 years Chaplain of the Royal Australian Navy, Patriot in love with his country, Sportsman of no mean ability, paragon of manliness.” So spoke Monsignor the Reverend Frank Lyons, Senior Chaplain RAN at the funeral service of the late Chaplain Hugh McDonald (Father ‘Mac’) in the Cathedral of St Mary at Geelong in 1975.