John Augustine Collins

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Captain John Collins in 1943

Vice-Admiral Sir John Augustine Collins, KBE, CB (1899–1989) was an Australian naval officer who served in World War I and World War II, and who eventually rose to become the First Naval Member of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board and Chief of the Naval Staff. Collins was one of the first graduates of the Royal Australian Naval College to attain flag rank. During World War II, he commanded the cruiser HMAS Sydney in the Mediterranean.

[edit] Early life and education

John Augustine Collins was born in Deloraine, Tasmania, in 1899. In 1913, aged 14, Collins joined the first intake to the RAN College; he became a midshipman in January 1917, in time to see war service while attached to the Royal Navy.

[edit] World War II

Collins' career advanced steadily between the world wars. At the outbreak of war in 1939 he held the positions of Assistant Chief of Naval Staff and Director of Military Intelligence.

In the early war years Collins commanded HMAS Sydney in the Battle of the Mediterranean. Sydney led Allied ships which sank a state-of-the-art Italian cruiser, Bartolomeo Colleoni, in July 1940. Collins left Sydney several months before it was lost in November 1941.

During 1943, Collins commanded HMAS Shropshire and took part in the Bougainville campaign, the Battle of Cape Gloucester, and operations off the Admiralty Islands and Hollandia (Dutch New Guinea). He was later made commander of the Australian-US Navy Task Force 74, and commander of the Australian Naval Squadron, with HMAS Australia as his flagship. Collins was badly wounded in the first kamikaze attack in history, on October 21, 1944, in the lead up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He did not resume his command until July 1945. When the war ended Collins was the RAN’s representative at the surrender ceremony in Tokyo Bay.

[edit] Post-war service and legacy

Collins was appointed Chief of Naval Staff in 1948 and held the position until 1955. He later served as Australia’s High Commissioner to New Zealand (1956–1962).

The latest class of Australian submarine, the Collins class bears his name. The first of these, HMAS Collins, was launched by his widow in 1993.