Previous Chiefs of Navy

The following list chronologically records those who have held the post of Chief of Navy. Note: List excludes some Royal Navy personnel appointed First Naval Member (now known as Chief of Navy Australia).

List of Previous Chiefs of Navy

VADM Sir Roy Russell Dowling
(1955-1959)

Vice Admiral Sir Roy Russell Dowling

Roy Russell Dowling was born on 28 May 1901 at Condong, on the Tweed River, NSW. He was the sixth child of Russell Dowling, sugar-cane inspector, and his wife Lily Jane (née Ingram). In 1915 Dowling...

VADM Sir John Augustine Collins
(1948-1955)

Vice Admiral Sir John Augustine Collins

John Augustine Collins was born in Deloraine, Tasmania, on 7 January 1899. He was the son of the late Dr MJ Collins and Mrs Collins, and a brother of Dale Collins, the Australian novelist. He was one...

Colvin, Sir Ragnar Musgrave
(1937-1941)

Admiral Sir Ragnar Musgrave Colvin

Ragnar Musgrave Colvin was born on 7 May 1882 at Whitehall, London, son of Clement Sneyd Colvin, civil servant, and his wife Alice Jane, née Lethbridge. He joined the Royal Navy as a Cadet in HMS...

(1931-1937)

Admiral Sir George Francis Hyde

George Francis Hyde was born at Portsmouth on 19 July 1877. At the age of 17 he went to sea as an Apprentice in the steel clipper Mount Stewart, completing several round voyages from London to Sydney...

VADM Sir William Rooke Creswell
(1904-1919)

Vice Admiral Sir William Rooke Creswell

William Rooke Creswell was born on 20 July 1852 at Gibraltar, son of Edmund Creswell, the colony’s deputy-postmaster-general, and his wife Margaret Mary Ward, née Fraser. Educated at Aitken's Private...

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