Ian Knox, President

Ralph Derbidge, Vice President

John Smith, Hon. Secretary

John Ellis Hon. Treasurer

John was born in Dubbo and joined the RANC in 1953. He trained in HMAS Swan, BRNC Dartmouth, HMS Vigilant, HMAS Melbourne and RNEC Manadon, specialising in marine engineering. He served in HMAS Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Hobart. He saw active service in Vietnam and was MEO of Hobart. Service ashore included appointments to Garden Island Dockyard and HMAS Cerberus.

In 1972 he resigned to join civilian industry in steel container manufacturing, mechanised warehousing and energy management. In 1980 he was appointed as MEO of Sydney Port Division, RANR, and completed his jssc in 1987. After two years full time service in Naval Support Command he managed the ship repair program until retirement in 1999. He has lived in Westleigh since 1972 and has maintained a close interest in Scouting and Rotary for ten years.

Paul Martin

Paul trained as a printer with the Adelaide Advertiser before joining the RAN through the RANR Cadet Scheme in 1956. After five years as a junior sailor and bunting tosser he was commissioned in 1961. He specialised in Gunnery, successfully completed his Long Gunnery Course (G+) in HMS Excellent and went on to command HMAS Vampire. He served as Director of Surface and Air Weapons, as a member of the Directing Staff of the RAN Staff College and as Commandant of the Joint Warfare Establishment.

He retired from the RAN in 1990 and became a Regional Manager for the Defence Housing Authority. He maintains a variety of maritime interests, and he remains an active volunteer with the Naval Historical Society.

Dave Blazey, Membership Secretary

Ron Robb

Ron trained as a motor mechanic apprentice before joining the RAN in 1952 and qualifying as an Aircraft Mechanician in 1960. Commissioned in 1963, he introduced concepts such as Tool Control, Flexible Servicing and Civil Aircraft Maintenance Licencing Agreements to the RAN and served as a Senior Air Engineering Officer in RAN squadrons. He graduated from the RAN Staff College in 1979 and worked in the UK with the RN during the Falklands War. Ron retired in 1987 but returned to coordinate a number of special RAN projects until 1992.

Active in his church organisation, Ron has contributed to a number of Church-related State-wide policy papers. He also the Honorary Company Secretary of the Bedford Business College, the Honorary Archivist of the NSW Baptist Historical Society, and he has a distinguished record as an author.

John Hazell

Jerry Lattin, Newsletter Editor

Jerry graduated from RANC in 1955, became a salt horse, and retired as a commander in 1979. In between he had several years in PNG, most of it driving small ships, completed the RN Staff Course at Greenwich and JSSC at Canberra, and spent his last few years of naval FTS on the Directing Staff of the latter. In search of excitement, he went to work in the mining industry at Christmas Island, and found it: he was the centre of a riot of 1200 immigrant workers within 72 hours of taking up his new job. Five years later he became a bureaucrat in Sydney. His office had a beautiful view of Sydney Harbour; watching RAN fleet units come and it got to him after a while.

So at the age of 55 he went back to sea in the merchant service, commanding bulk carriers under charter to the Ok Tedi mine on the Fly River in PNG, and further afield as far as Bangkok and Townsville. Later he worked under the Australian Red Duster, driving a small cargo ship between Yamba NSW and Lord Howe Island. Both jobs afloat involved operating in extremely close vicinity to the putty - and contact with same on numerous occasions. He believes that the experience of sitting high and dry on a mud-bank in a 4500-tonne ship while contemplating an approaching tidal bore concentrates the mind better than anything else he has experienced.

Most of his life Jerry has been trying to become a competent musician, on almost any instrument - but there is universal agreement that he has not yet reached that point on any of them.

Geoff Cole, Webmaster

Division chairmen

John Redman, Chairman, Victoria Division

John is a regional coordinator of the Naval Officers Club committee, representing the Victorian Division. After graduating as an engineer from Portsmouth University he joined the RN in 1967 and transferred to the RAN in 1972. He served in HMAS Sydney, Melbourne, Stalwart and ashore in Nirimba. Retiring in 1977, he joined Mobil Oil and subsequently worked in the management consulting divisions at Director level for practices now known as Price Waterhouse Coopers, Ernst and Young and Pannell Kerr Forster.

He is currently Managing Director of Battaini Redman Management Consultants in Melbourne, a firm specialising in executive search and selection.

Mike Taylor, Chairman, ACT Division

After qualifying as a Direction Officer, Mike served as a Fighter Controller, Strike Director and Operations Room Officer in the aircraft carriers Ark Royal, Victorious and Melbourne, and as the Operations Officer in Hobart during her third Vietnam deployment in 1970. Subsequent postings as a Commander were as OIC of the newly commissioned AIOTT at Watson, and then as Training Commander of the establishment. Mike again joined Albatross (for the third time) as Joint Director of AJASS, followed by command of Vampire. During this time Vampire conducted the first at sea RAN Navigation Officers' course in which the destroyer at speed at night visited poorly charted areas of the Queensland coast better suited to rowing boats! His final RAN posting was as Director of Naval Operations because an aversion to Defence's committee system - paralysis by analysis - caused him to transfer to the RANR in 1985 and thence to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre as a Senior SAR Coordinator for 12 years.

Currently Mike is a Board member of Canberra's largest and most active RSL Sub-Branch as Vice President Finance, and convener of the annual ANZAC and Peace Ceremony conducted for up to 1,500 Primary School children in the Woden Valley area.

Lucas Skoufa, Chairman, Queensland Division

Lucas joined the RAN in 1984 while studying mechanical engineering at the Queensland University of Technology. After graduation he served in HMAS Sydney and worked at Garden Island Dockyard as Project Manager for the 1990-1991 refit of HMAS Success. Lucas also worked at HMAS Platypus in 1993-1994 as FIMA Workshop Production Manager. After retiring from the RAN in December 1994 Lucas spent two years at a power station as a Turbine Engineer before going back to academia to do his MBA and then PhD.

He is currently a Lecturer with The University of Queensland Business School; his teaching interest is in the field of strategic management and his research work is in the topical area of electricity generation and greenhouse gas emissions.

Bob MUMMERY, Chairman, West Australian Division

Joining as an apprentice in January 1960, Bob served at sea as an Engine Room Artificer before being commissioned in June 1970.  As an Engineer Officer, Bob served in a number of HMAS Ships.  Some highlights of his career included six months as a Divisional CPO to 140 Junior Recruits, working with the USN at the Communication Station “Harold E Holt”, the Commissioning of HMAS Stirling and three years on the staff of COMAUSMINPAB Forces.  He thoroughly enjoyed his many sea postings.

In 1990 Bob resigned and joined industry in Western Australia working as a project manager in the defence and oil & gas industries and government infrastructure projects retiring from industry in 2004. At that time Navy called, quoting a shortage of Engineer Officers, inviting Bob to enter a period of Full time Service. This continued until the end of 2009 and Bob and wife Diana are now into regular caravanning trips and other activities usually reserved for grey nomads.