The Military History Society of NSW

Rear Admiral Guy R Griffiths AO DSO DSC RAN (Ret) is one of Australia’s most distinguished military leaders, having served in the Royal Australian Navy – with stints in the Royal Navy – from enlistment as a Cadet Midshipman in 1937, aged 13, to retirement as Rear Admiral in 1980. During this lecture, Rear Admiral Griffiths will reminisce about his first hand experiences of the terrors and triumphs of naval life. In World War II he was one of the few surviving crew of the battleship HMS Repulse , sunk by the Japanese off Malaya on 10 December 1941, following which he saw action in the culminating battles of the South West Pacific, including Leyte Gulf, Lingayen Gulf and Surigao Strait. In the post-war era he served aboard the aircraft-carrier HMAS Sydney and the destroyer HMAS Anzac during the Korean War, and as commander of the guided missile destroyer HMAS Hobart in the Vietnam War. He participated in the evacuation of Darwin after Cyclone Tracey in 1974 as com