47 Facts About Alan McNicoll

Alan McNicoll was posted for staff duties with the Admiralty from September 1943 and was involved in the planning of the Normandy landings.

Alan McNicoll commanded the ship for two years before it was sold off for scrap, at which point he returned to London to attend the Imperial Defence College in 1955.

Alan McNicoll occupied staff positions in London and Canberra before being posted to the Naval Board as Chief of Personnel in 1960.

Alan McNicoll's career culminated with his promotion to vice admiral and appointment as First Naval Member and Chief of Naval Staff in February 1965.

Alan McNicoll retired from the RAN in 1968 and was appointed as the inaugural Australian Ambassador to Turkey.

Alan McNicoll served in the diplomatic post for five years, then retired to Canberra.

Alan McNicoll was born in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, Victoria, on 3 April 1908.

Alan McNicoll was the second of five sons of Walter McNicoll, a school teacher and Militia officer, and Hildur.

The young Alan McNicoll was of noble Norwegian descent through his mother.

Alan McNicoll was initially educated at Scotch College, Melbourne, before the family moved to Goulburn, from where he was sent to attend The Scots College in Sydney.

On 1 January 1922, at the age of thirteen, Alan McNicoll entered the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay.

On graduation in 1926, Alan McNicoll was posted to Britain for service and further training with the Royal Navy.

Alan McNicoll was promoted to lieutenant in July 1930, with seniority from 1 April that year.

On 18 May 1937, Alan McNicoll wed Ruth Timmins at St Stephen's Church of England at Brighton.

From March 1939, Alan McNicoll was seconded to the Royal Navy, receiving a posting to the torpedo school HMS Vernon; he was serving in Vernon on the outbreak of the Second World War.

On 14 September 1939, eleven days after the outbreak of the Second World War, Alan McNicoll was posted to HMS Victory, the flagship of Admiral Sir William James, the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.

Alan McNicoll's decoration was promulgated in a supplement to the London Gazette on 8 July 1941.

Alan McNicoll was briefly reposted to HMS Victory on 1 September 1943, before being transferred for staff duties with the Admiralty in London the following month.

Alan McNicoll completed a year-long attachment with the Admiralty, and was involved in the planning for the Normandy landings.

Alan McNicoll returned to Australia and was attached to the staff of HMAS Cerberus in October 1944; he spent the remainder of the war in this post.

Up to this period, Alan McNicoll had completed all but five of his years of military service attached to the Royal Navy.

The ship was placed in reserve from December 1947, and Alan McNicoll briefly transferred to HMAS Penguin before assuming the post of Director of Plans and Operations at the Navy Office in Melbourne on 6 January 1948.

Alan McNicoll was then posted to the Navy Office to assist in the introduction and co-ordination of National Service in the Australian military in response to the National Service Act 1951.

Alan McNicoll moved to the land base HMAS Lonsdale in October 1951, on being made Deputy Chief of Naval Staff.

In 1952, Alan McNicoll was appointed chairman of the planning committee for the British nuclear tests on the Montebello Islands, off the coast of Western Australia.

Alan McNicoll was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1954 New Year Honours List for his involvement in the British atomic program; he was presented with the decoration three months later by Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony at Government House, Melbourne.

Alan McNicoll was later appointed a Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Dutch government for his rescue of the ship.

Alan McNicoll relinquished command of HMAS Australia in July 1954 before the cruiser was paid off and marked for disposal the following month, and he briefly returned to duties at the Navy Office.

Alan McNicoll returned to Australia in February 1958 and was selected to serve as Deputy Secretary at the Department of Defence; McNicoll's rank was made substantive in July that year.

On 8 January 1960, Alan McNicoll was posted to the Naval Board in Canberra as Second Naval Member and Chief of Personnel.

Alan McNicoll was additionally appointed as a trustee of the RAN Relief Trust Fund during this period.

Alan McNicoll argued that surface and air weapons posed a threat equal to that of submarines toward vessels in modern naval warfare.

Furthermore, Alan McNicoll was charged with the responsibility of ensuring Australian naval commitments to the Far East Strategic Reserve were met.

On 24 February 1965, Alan McNicoll was promoted vice admiral and made Chief of Naval Staff in succession to Vice Admiral Sir Hastings Harrington.

Alan McNicoll furthermore had to oversee an extensive modernisation of the fleet, with the introduction into service of the Perth-class destroyers, Attack-class patrol boats, and the initial batch of Oberon-class submarines.

Alan McNicoll criticised the lack of foresight in earlier decisions that had led to "inconsistencies and inadequate estimating" in the future needs of the RAN, which had consequently left the fleet outdated and minimal.

Alan McNicoll had to cope with the turmoil occasioned by these events and concerned himself with the restoration of morale in the Navy.

Alan McNicoll lobbied ardently for the position, and was supported by his wife, Frances, who actively campaigned on her husband's behalf.

Alan McNicoll was eager for a RAN contribution to the Vietnam War and, in July 1966, proposed that the four Australian minesweepers operating out of Singapore be deployed to Vietnamese waters since Konfrontasi was at an end and the vessels were no longer necessary in that area.

Federal politician Sam Benson questioned the Australian use of the British ensign before parliament in October 1965, and Alan McNicoll later raised the issue with the Naval Board.

The trip culminated with a two-week visit to Vietnam, and Alan McNicoll was present in Saigon when the city was attacked by Viet Cong forces as part of the Tet Offensive.

On his retirement from the Navy, Alan McNicoll was appointed by the Australian government as its inaugural ambassador to Turkey.

Alan McNicoll was able to form amiable relations between the governments of Australia and Turkey, despite the physical and logistic issues associated with the establishment of a new embassy and the lack of knowledge both nations had of one another.

Alan McNicoll held his diplomatic post in Ankara for five years, before he returned to Australia in 1973 and retired to Canberra.

Alan McNicoll was a music lover and a keen fly-fisherman.

Sir Alan McNicoll died on 11 October 1987 at the age of 79.

Alan McNicoll was survived by his wife, and by the children from his first marriage.